12 February 2007 Hibs v Musselburgh Windsor - Match Report

Hibs U17 Girls welcomed Musselburgh Windsor U17 Girls to Redhall Park , Edinburgh for this First Round Scottish Cup Match for 2006 / 7 season. This was the third meeting of these two sides with the previous games ending 2 – 2 in Edinburgh and 1-6 in favour of Musselburgh Windsor in Whitecraigs , East Lothian. This was the first time that Hibs Girls had played at Redhall Park and the underfoot conditions were very heavy following a lot of rain during the week.

The match kicked off with Hibs shooting down the hill and after a cagey few early minutes , it was Hibs Girls who took the initiative and dictated most of the possession. Musselburgh Windsor had a couple of attacks through Kim Borthwick , who is an excellent player and Gemma Piakowski was also prominent on the right wing for Musselburgh. However, Mariel Kaney was very effective at reducing the amount of possession that went through Kim Borthwick and this meant that Kim had to move further and further back to gain possession. Danni Diey , supported by Emma Gray did extremely well at winning possession on the Hibs left and kept Hibs moving forward , reducing opportunities for Gemma Piakowski to exploit on the Hibs right flank to a minimum.

Jinky and Mariel started to impose their style on the game and they were providing excellent ammunition to Lisa Yarwood , Laura Smith and Emma Gray. Louise Whyte was also prominent on the right for Hibs and it was from Louise that Hibs eventually opened the scoring after she provided the cross into a packed 6 yard box where Lisa and Laura Smith and Emma Gray worked hard to create the opportunity for a strike which was deflected on its way into the net. Not sure who is claiming this goal!

The Hibs back 4 was solid with Natalie and Danni at full back and Coral and Megan at centre back all working well and they were rarely troubled by Musselburgh in the first half whilst Laura Connolly in the Hibs goal didn’t have a save of note to make throughout this period.

In the second half , it was much the same in the first 25 minutes with Hibs controlling most of the possession and the Hibs back 4 rarely troubled. Any shots coming in were from range and Laura Connolly was able to deal with these relatively comfortably. Lisa Yarwood was holding possession well for Hibs up front and was putting Emma Gray on the Hibs left away on a number of occasions which was starting to cause problems for Musselburgh’s defence.

On two separate occasions Emma had real opportunities to score but her shots were off target and wide. On another couple of occasions , Emma provided crosses into the 6 yard box for Louise Whyte to convert but unfortunately , on the first occasion the ball skidded in the mud and Louise misjudged this and the chance was gone. On the second occasion , Louise hit the crossbar with the goal at her mercy.

In the last 15 minutes of the second half , Musselburgh Windsor knew they had to push forward looking for the equalising goal and did so , putting the Hibs defence under pressure and pushing Hibs back for almost the first time in the match. The equalising goal came from a speculative shot from range which deflected off Megan Turnbull and into the net.

The game finished 1 – 1 after 90 minutes.

In the first period of extra time , Musselburgh decided to play down the hill again as they had done in the second half of normal time and to their credit they put Hibs under a lot of pressure in this period. Hibs were finding possession difficult to keep and move forward and it was no surprise when Musselburgh went ahead.

One of Musselburgh’s goals came after a short period of disarray following an injury to Coral Cassidy near the half way line. She didn't get back into position by the time the ball was played into the middle and as a result , Musselburgh cleverly exploited this and scored to go into the lead.

Shortly after this , Coral was dragged out wide for the third, and the Musselburgh forward cleverly turned back inside, crossed into the middle and Gemma Piakowski managed to get in front of Megan Turnbull to hit first time into bottom corner from 12 yards for an excellent goal. Both Coral and Megan were prostrate on the ground thinking they had erred in giving the opposition a certain winner.

At 1 – 3 down , Hibs were really up against it and things went from bad to worse when Coral Cassidy was injured early into the second period of extra time and was replaced by Lyndsay Anne Reid who was making her Hibs debut at an absolutely crucial time in the game. It is at times like these that players and teams find out a lot about themselves and facing defeat Hibs Girls galvanised themselves and drove forward at Musselburgh.

They worked tirelessly in the pursuit of a second goal and it came from Jinky who after picking up possession in midfield unleashed an unstoppable shot with her left foot into the Musselburgh net from 20 yards. With the game moving into injury time , Hibs continued to attack at every opportunity and they got their reward when the ball broke from within the Musselburgh box back to Emma Gray who hit an unstoppable shot on the run into the net for the equalising goal.

The match went to penalties and Jinky missed the first Hibs penalties with Steph missing the last of Musselburgh Windsor’s 5 to make the aggregate score 7 – 7. In sudden death , Hibs scored a further 2 penalties whilst Musselburgh Windsor hit the post with their second penalty, giving the victory on the day to Hibs.

Musselburgh Windsor are a very strong and capable side with some excellent players in their ranks , especially Kim Borthwick who has the ability to change games on her own. Hibs Girls were outstanding all over the pitch with Mariel Kaney and Jinky outstanding in midfield and Louise Whyte having her best game of the season so far. Natalie McLeod at right back and Danni Diey at left back were also outstanding and did everything that was asked of them and more. Coral Cassidy and Megan Turnbull are developing an excellent partnership in central defence and should be pleased with their contribution.

When Coral went off injured and Natalie had to go into central defence, Lyndsay Ann Reid came on at an extremely difficult time in the match and did really well and should be pleased with her performance. Lisa Yarwood was always a threat and with her strength and power , she was able to provide Laura Smith and Emma Gray with some great possession throughout the match.

Laura Smith worked tremendously hard and it won’t be long before Laura resumes her scoring which made her Hibs top scorer last season. Her partnership with Lisa Yarwood will without doubt be a success as the season progresses. Emma Gray worked tirelessly throughout the match and was not well at the start of the match but insisted on playing and took the game to penalties when she equalised with almost the last kick of the ball.

This game was a great advert for Girls Youth Football with the standard of both teams a credit to their clubs and their coaches. Both teams asked no quarter and gave no quarter and were both totally motivated and focussed on winning the match for their respective clubs. Hibs now progress to round 2 of the Scottish Cup and play Kilmarnock away on the weekend of March 4th / 5th.