Match Report Saturday 25/04/10

First points on the board.

Away : League game V  Murieston United.

The team was buzzing at training on Wednesday night. We had a very good work out with the girls putting in a hard shift and looking forward to the game  at the weekend. With our influential sweeper (Thomo) out with injury and a certainty to miss at least the next 3 months we would have to change the team about & look to the midfield maestro (Captain Nicole Scott) to take up the sweeper roll for the coming months.

On Match day it was clear to see the girls were right up for the match. They were fully focused on the job in hand and were keen to get started on arrival at the park.

Right from kick off Paisley showed some very good determination along with some great passing & pressure.,  We took the upper hand and& were first to every ball winning tackles when it counted. Paisley midfield was running the show with some lovely passing moves bringing the wide players in behind the Murieston back line.

The first half ended goalless, although we came very close on several occasions with the ball striking the woodwork or just going wide. The big positive from the first half was we defended very well and when needed we were all working together keeping position and the use of the ball was superb to watch.

HALF TIME : Murieston United - 0  Paisley Saints Girls - 0 

We had centre for the start of the second half. From there we went direct to the Murieston goal  pressing just as we had been doing in the first half.
On the 47th minute of play Jenny Brogan who had a strong commanding game in the middle of the park hit a pass to Emily McLauchlan who ran through & beat the offside trap with one touch the ball was brought down under control, Emily took a look up and saw the keeper was off her line.  Emily, as cool as you like, chipped the ball over the keeper and into the open goal.

From Murieston taking centre we looked keen to win posession back, the girls worked hard at shutting down play forcing Murieston into their own half. We won the ball again in midfield, passing & movement off the ball was excellent the full team were getting into space when we had the ball & were looking for the pass. On the 49th minute we counted 7 passes from Nicole Scott through the midfield to the Murieston goal from one side of the park to the other with some very well worked passing with Nicole Goodwin coming very close,  the ball just going inches past the outstretched Muireston keeper.
Two Minutes later we were awarded a corner on the right which Nicole Howie  flighted in to the front post area, Louise Fagan made a darting run from the edge of the box fully committed to making contact with the ball she rose above everyone blasting the ball into the back of the net.

With a two goal lead and the game coming to its end we were still creating chance after chance. Murieston made a couple of substitutions and changed their formation about looking to miss out the midfield and started to play some high long passes through to their three strikers at this point, their No 10 and No 14 were giving us some problems with their strong running and physical play. Nicole Scott was very commanding & showed great leadership quality’s talking all the time to her back three, however the Murieston No 10 broke loose and got on the end of a pass from her left back ran through on goal and slotted Muriestons goal in on the 71st minute.

Final Score : Murieston United  - 1   Paisley Saints Girls - 2 

Girls gave a good account of themselves & improvement is there to be seen in every game we play. Our just reward  came at last.

Well done to the full squad.
You did your team mates & coaches proud on the day .