East Fife Ladies v Hibernian Ladies 2000 in Methil on 11th April - Match Report
The young ladies side travelled to Methil with 9 fully fit players and two players recoverning from injury to maintain their unbeaten start to the season!
East Fife Ladies v Hibernian Ladies 2000
Sunday 11th April 2010
King George V Park, Leven
Kick Off – 2pm
Today Hibernian Ladies 2000 travelled to Methil to play East Fife Ladies in their fourth league game of the season determined to maintain their winning ways. However, we knew this could be tested as we travelled to Methil with nine fit players and had to ask two of our players to play with injuries which we didn’t like doing.
In order to try to protect our injured players, we reorganised our team. Our back 4 changed for the 3rd time in 3 weeks as did our midfield. Gemma Robb came into the back 4 to play behind Coral Cassidy and Nikki Clark continued at right back after showing up very well last week in her debut. Dannielle Diey continued at left back.
Stacey Hutchison moved into central midfield along with captain Mariel Kaney and the two wide midfielders, Bryony Ross and Kirsty Smith who did so well against Dundee City started in these positions with Laura Smith and Julie Paton upfront.
The pitch was hard and bumpy and the girls knew that the ball would be difficult to control and unpredictable, especially if they allowed it to bounce. However, as is always the case, it is what you do in a game that normally determines the result and the girls were told before the game that we had eleven players on the pitch against eleven and we were here to win the game.
From the start the Ladies were determined to start positively and Julie Paton and Kirsty Smith especially were prominent from kick off. Mariel Kaney and Stacey Hutchison were determined to get on the ball and control the flow of possession. Kirsty Smith was sent clear on the left by Mariel to test the speed of the East Fife defence and delivered a powerful cross into the box to show our intent, It was immediately apparent that both Kirsty and Bryony would be able to cause real problems with their pace given possession.
Bryony was also prominent on the right and was providing good possession for Julie and Laura up front who were both looking lively and eager to get on the score sheet. From another break on the left, Kirsty Smith delivered into the box for Julie Paton to fire a shot goalward but it hit the arm of an East Fife defender on its way towards goal and the referee immediately awarded Hibernian Ladies a penalty. Julie immediately picked the ball up and placed it on the spot confidently. However her shot was too central and the keeper made a fairly easy save from it.
The Ladies, although disappointed not to be ahead at this point kept working hard to maintain possession of the ball and kept moving the ball wide and from another rampaging run down the left, the outstanding Kirsty Smith delivered another ball into the 6 yard box after being sent clear from an accurate pass from Danielle Diey and BRYONY ROSS came in late on the blind side of the East Fife defence to prod the ball home for the first goal from 5 yards.
Stacey Hutchison was relishing her new role in midfield and making sure along with Mariel that we kept possession whilst Nikki Clark was again showing up really well at right back, taking up good position in support of her team mates and playing simple but effective balls to them. Coral Cassidy and Gemma Robb were rarely troubled other than when high goal kicks were allowed to bounce but they recovered and passed their way out of trouble along with Hannah when required.
East Fife were finding it difficult to gain possession but were determined to get into the game and won a couple of corners and delivered excellent balls into the box from these. Hannah Reid was called into action to clear one of these extremely dangerous deliveries.
On 28 minutes, more excellent passing in midfeld resulted in Kirsty Smith being sent clear on the left and this time, JULIE PATON redeemed her penalty miss to score from 8 yards.
Half Time – East Fife Ladies 0 v 2 Hibernian Ladies 2000
The second half started with Hibernian Ladies 2000 intent on putting this game out of reach of East Fife Ladies, knowing that two goals were not enough to be sure of a win. The fitness levels of the Ladies would eventually help to make sure of a good victory but East Fife were not about to give up. They kept fighting for possession but found it difficult to hold onto and the Ladies tried to get at them down both flanks and through the middle. The play became a bit bogged down in midfield as East Fife tired but after receiving possession from the right, KIRSTY SMITH who had come off her wing, struck an outstanding ball from 25 yards which rattled the inside of the right hand post before ending up at the other side of the net giving the East Fife keeper no chance for her first goal of the afternoon and the Ladies third of the afternoon.
For the rest of what was a fairly dour second half the Ladies 2000 side were never really troubled and the game ended with no further score.
Full Time: East Fife Ladies 0 v 3 Hibernian Ladies 2000
Coach Brian Ross commented after the game that the Ladies did well with very limited resources to gain a strong advantage in the first half but failed to kill off East Fife and allowed their standards of play to be affected by their opponents. However, a good win away from home with no injuries and no goals conceded so we now prepare for our next league game against Falkirk Academy at Redford on the astro surface next Sunday 18th April. Many successes today, with Kirsty Smith, Stacey Hutchison and Nikki Clark all prominent but it was Mariel Kaney who received the MOM from the referee today.
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