MANCHESTER CUP REPORT

              The girls this Easter weekend took part in the Manchester Cup, a 7 a side tournament over at Wythenshawe, Manchester. After a few early phone calls both mornings to ensure that the tournament was going ahead due to the overnight snowfalls (they had no snowfall whatsoever on Saturday morning) we managed to arrive just in time for our first match at 10:30 against Oldham Athletic 'B'. The Oldham team also had a problem getting to the venue for the start, they could only muster 6 players for the game as one was still stuck in traffic, so unlike most teams we have come across this season we also started with six (for the first time in 2008 we had two subs) and the girls ran out comfortable winners thanks to a Charlotte Kestin hat trick,some excellent finishing, quite remarkable really considering she's spent most of the season trying to keep the shots out.

              The next game saw the girls on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline against Moston Valley. It was 0-0 at half time and a very even game but not for the first time this year we conceded a couple of quick and rather sloppy goals and never got back into the match. Our third match saw us against Oldham Athletic 'A', yet again we conceded a goal of our own making to be 1-0 down at half time but this time the girls fought back to level the score (B.Ellis), only to go behind again but yet again the girls came back to get an equaliser as Nicole's corner got deflected into her own net by an Oldham defender. The spirit that the girls showed in this game unfortunately has been lacking in the majority of our matches this year, this performance (and the one against Wigton in the semi when again we only had 10 players) proves that the girls are good enough to play against ANY team when they want to. The final game of the day saw us play undoubtedly the best side in our group, Manchester City, yet again though the girls were holding the opposition at half time 0-0 but once again, soft goals and heads going down quickly saw us lose by 4 goals to nil.

               Sunday morning, and we had our final group game against Medlock Rangers, a defeat would mean that in the final match the girls would just be playing for pride, a draw or better would see us playing in the Challenge Cup Final. We needn't have worried though because in all honesty the girls never looked like losing the game as Charlotte soon took her goal tally to four for the tournament and it was a surprise that the girls didn't add any more they could have had three or four.

               So the girls made it into the Challenge Cup final where they were to play Oldham Athletic 'A'. Apart from an early scare when Laura allowed a corner to squeeze through her legs (though somehow she redeemed herself by clawing it back from the line) Oldham never really created much until the last couple of minutes when they forced a few corners, the girls were in control of the game. Though the game was decided only by one goal the girls created more than enough chances to finish the game off and as in our previous game we could have had two or three more goals but the one that they did get was rather fortunate as Bethany's shot squeezed under the diving keeper but the only thing that matters is that it ended up in the back of the net.

               I would like to finish off with a very special thankyou to two of our past players, Anna Foulstone and Stephanie Trowsdale (who was excellent ALL weekend) who without them on Saturday, again we wouldn't have had enough players we probably wouldn't have made the final and to all you parents for getting there in that awful weather over the weekend.