Harvesters U11	0
Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	9

Luton Town U11	0
Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	2

The Blues travelled to Luton today to play Luton Town Belles on a bitterly cold day.

The first half was a little slow to start and it took the girls time to settle in and Luton was determined to not make it easy for them and played a physical game.

The Blues began putting Luton under pressure and although they missed a few opportunities on goal they were finally rewarded with a well deserved goal five minutes before the half time whistle blew.

The second half began with Spurs hitting the woodwork and the Blues having the run of play and although Luton Belles had a few casualties, they gave a good strong performance.

Spurs put in some good challenges and interchanged well with each other that lead to another great goal making the final score at 2-0.

Today was a close game seeing both teams going in strong and despite a few injuries, the match was played in a good spirit with both players and parents enjoying the game. 


Goals today were from Abigail Barratt and Captain Phoebe Guiver

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	11
Enfield Town Ladies U11 Reds	0

The Under-11 Blues entertained Enfield Reds at Frederick Knights today in the HCGFL, having another goal scoring spree netting eleven goals in their eleventh game of the season.

With the visitors having no choice but to defend, the first goal came in under two minutes.  The Enfield goalie made some good saves keeping at least half a dozen balls out, but the Spurs passing game proved too much for a dogged Enfield side and once the halfway mark came Spurs found themselves six nil ahead.

The second half was played in the same style although Spurs became a little comfortable and missed a few chances that could have doubled the score.  Five more goals followed of which one was a penalty for a hand ball before the whistle blew.

Despite the score, Enfield Reds kept their heads up and played the game in good spirits never giving up.

Goals today were from Georgia Miller 9, Phoebe Guiver (captain) and Chloe Smith.

Well done girls.

Happy Christmas.

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	6
Denham United U11 Panthers	0

Spurs Under-11 Blues travelled to Denham U10 Panthers today for a HCGFL match on a very wet and cold day.

With a good passing display, Spurs dominated the play and showed some great movement and build up play despite the bad weather conditions.

The game had to be played at a slower pace because of a wet pitch, but the girls soon got to grips with it and combined well rewarding them with two first half goals.

The second half was much the same, with some balls spinning on the line and being kept out by the mud, although the Denham keeper did make some great saves and by the end of the match there was more mud on her than the pitch !!

Four more goals followed before the final whistle blew.

The match was played in good spirits with both teams putting in good performances.

Today's Blues goal-scorers were Chloe Smith 2, Lulu Fox 2 and Abigail Barrett 2.

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	1
Enfield Town Ladies U11 Blues	3

Spurs lost this important game, which was closely fought out, in their first defeat in the league for two years.  

 

The game started with a bang in the third minute as a long hard shot somehow managed to get through the hands of reserve goalkeeper Alison Woodward, making her return to the Blues, who also injured her hand in the same incident.  For the rest of the first half, the play was equally divided, with Phoebe Guiver running everywhere on the pitch and Louisa Fox hitting a near miss by the post.  Jemma McCarthy and Loren Humphreys contributed to a diligent defensive display.

 

After the break, Enfield slowly began to get more control as they concentrated on the midfield.  In this period,  the pressure paid off and the visitors scored two goals.  These were both clever solo efforts, giving the goalie no chance.   

 

Spurs fought back – Abigail Barrett, despite carrying a nagging injury, ran energetically and Chloe Smith got in some vital tackles, distributing the ball intelligently.  Finally the team started to work better together and Georgia Miller fastened onto a long pass, ran strongly forward before netting the ball.  This was near the final whistle. 

 

The ball went from end to end with some courageous saves by Alison, Lulu trying some long shots and Abigail still beavering away.  As in the first half, Phoebe ran all over,  while defenders Jemma and Loren usually got the better of the visitor’s attack. 

 

The game ended 1-3, with Spurs paying the price for play that fell below their usual high standard.  Even so, Spurs won the corner tally by 4 to 2.

 

In after-match interviews, Chloe commented, "We weren’t aggressive enough" and Georgia added, "There was just not enough support for the forwards."

 

Paul Fox, Manager and Coach said, "We lost the game in the middle of the pitch.  On the day, they were the better team."  

 

This result does not affect the Blues position at the top of the league with points in hand  and they are still on course to win the title  for the second year running.

 

NO GAME

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	9
Hitchin Town Belles U11	0

Spurs Blues won this game with what was probably their best performance for some time as they over powered Hitchin Town Belles.  Stand-in goalkeeper Jemma McCarthy reported that she only touched the ball twice, once in each half and even with regular goalkeeper Naomi Coulson and Louise Fox missing, the girls in Blue quickly began to tot up the goals. 

 

The first came from one of many excellent corners by Alison Woodward, with Georgia Miller putting the ball neatly into the net.  Next, Chloe Smith collected a pass, ran on towards goal and shot past the despairing goalie, before Georgia repeated the action after an exchange of passes by Ally with Phoebe Guiver.  Finally, in the closing stages of the first half Georgia got her hat-trick when she picked up a rebound from Ally’s shot and promptly scored from close in.

 

Hitchin played their best and kept trying, but made little headway, as throughout the first period, Loren Humphreys and Abigail Barrett had marshalled the defence and cut out the few counter attacks.   

 

In the second half, Ally opened the scoring with a goal from a centre by Phoebe and following this, the captain collected a goal kick and put in a long, powerful shot from long distance to open her account.  Georgia repeated her earlier success, taking a pass and scoring on the run and then capitalised on a corner to take to her personal total of five.   Lastly Chloe scored her second with a rebound after some faultless interchanges down the right wing, which was a well taken final goal.

 

The whole match was an exhibition of accurate passing, through balls and crosses.  The Hitchin goalie was their busiest player and saved several attempts by the Spurs girls, with the corner tally being twelve against nil.  Loren repeated her first half performance and kept out occasional forays from the visitors and Jemma had a quiet game throughout, it could be said !

 

In an after-match interview, Abbie said, “I enjoyed the game, because I played well.  We all worked hard, gave 100% effort and the passing was brilliant.”

 

Les Smith, assistant manger coach commented that this was a good all round performance, with every one supporting each other.  He said, “We needed to pick up after our last game  and, in doing this, we recovered well.”

 

Paul Fox, Coach and Manager said, “I think the team showed the right attitude and soon took control of the game.“

 

Denham United U11 Wildcats	5
Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	5

Spurs Under-11 Blues drew with another front running team in an eventful match played in bright sunny conditions.   

 

The visitors went ahead after eight minutes when a shot by Chloe Smith was deflected into the net.  It was goal bound anyway so Chloe deserves the credit.  She had the speed to get past defenders on the right wing and from one of her centres, Georgia Miller struck the ball accurately for the second goal.

 

Meanwhile Denham were hitting back and scored three times to record a 3-2 lead at the half time interval.  This was largely due to one player who somehow got through the Spurs defences, despite good work by Loren Humphreys  and Abigail Barrett who repulsed most of the attacks.  The two defenders often cleared the ball up-field.

 

In the second half, new girl Shannon Eade came on to open up the left wing with some strong runs, but it was Chloe who again added to the goal total, when she netted a hat trick with some clever running, both down the wing and across the field.  One of these goals came from a re-bound off the post.  Both Louise Fox and Phoebe Guiver nearly added to the Spurs lead with powerful shots and Georgia also came close to scoring again. 

 

With the final whistle near, the Wildcats put in a last effort and scored twice in four minutes to force a draw.  None of the goals were due to defensive errors by goalie Naomi Coulson or defenders Loren and Abbie.  The problem seemed to lie in the middle of the pitch and not closing down the foraging Denham midfield.

 

Finally, mention must be made of Shannon’s efforts as she began to fit into the team and Phoebe’s energy as she played a captain’s role all over the pitch.

 

In an after-match interview, Naomi said, “I am gutted at letting in five goals in a match.“   Lou added that she thought they gave Denham too much room.  Paul Fox , manager and coach, summed the match up, “It was a good game, credit all round.“

 

The result keeps the position at the top of the League still open, with the final games being decisive.

QPR U11	0
Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	5

This match between QPR U11 and Spurs U11 Blues was able to be played as it took place on an artificial pitch immediately after the heavy snowfall had been swept off it.  

 

Spurs started brightly with an excellent goal by Louisa Fox, who took a free kick from a long way out, but hit the ball strongly into the net.  Soon after Naomi Coulson in the Spurs goal was penalised for handling outside the penalty area, which was not clearly marked, but Naomi pulled off a spectacular save from the resulting free kick.  This was the first of half a dozen saves that highlighted her performance.  

 

Alison Woodward and Jemma McCarthy meanwhile defended solidly and thwarted the rest of the QPR attacks.  At the other end Chloe Smith showed consistent ability in getting through the QPR defence and testing the goalkeeper after some accurate passes from the midfield by Louise Fox and Phoebe Guiver.  The remaining high point of this half was a courageous goal line clearance by Ally when all seemed lost.  

 

One nil to the visitors at half time and from the restart, Chloe immediately opened her account with an outstanding shot on the run.  Next came two goals by Shannon Eade, coming on at the break and beating the goalkeeper twice from close in and with her second, she rounded the defence to hit home.

 

Loren Humphreys and Abigail Barrett replaced the two defenders, being equally competent at stopping the strikers of the home team and starting counter attacks with skilful passes.  Phoebe and Lou probed the defence and kept up the pressure as Spurs dominated this period of the match.

 

The quality of the passing was superb and Jemma in particular gave a polished performance in both halves.  Georgia Miller made a number of useful runs down the left wing, exchanging the ball with other strikers.

 

The last goal was the result of a powerful long shot by Chloe which was fumbled and went over the line by default.   5-0 at the final whistle, with Spurs also ahead on the corner count by 11 to 4.  

 

This match was played half way through the thaw and Shannon, in an after- match, interview said  “This was a good introduction to the league and I was glad to get my name on the score sheet.”

 

Paul Fox, manager and coach, remarked that this was a good match and was an excellent opportunity to put what they learned in training on a similar pitch into practice.  

 

ALAN WOODWARD

NO GAME

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies  U11 Whites	1
Tottenham Hotspur Ladies U11 Blues	2

A match between the two Spurs Ladies Under-11 sides was always going to be a matter of honour and produced an entertaining and tight game that the Blues just edged.

 

This match was evenly balanced, a situation that might not have been predicted and was fought out to the end. The Whites opened the scoring in the tenth minute and indeed did more than enough to hold their own in the first half.  Both sides played a few good passing moves and the play switched from one end to the other, with the number of corners being about the same.  For the Blues, Chloe Smith played well down the wing, where her speed and skill counted and she managed some good centres.  So the scored remained 0-1 to the break.

 

The second half saw more action as the Blues began to assert themselves, with strong shots by Louisa Fox and Shannon Eade among others.  But it was the “visiting“ team that got closest to scoring when a penalty was awarded, only to be saved by goalie Naomi Coulson.  Both goalkeepers gave faultless displays, with Naomi perhaps shading it because of this save.

 

Midway through the half the pressure by the Blues paid off, when Alison Woodward came up from her left back position to hit a powerful shot that was deflected into the net.  The Whites fought back but Loren Humphreys and Jemma McCarthy defended strongly to minimise any threat.

 

Captain Phoebe Guiver came back on to resume her role in the midfield and from the attacks that stemmed from there a series of corners resulted.  One of these, an accurate centre by Lou, resulted in a goalmouth scramble and Georgia Miller struck the ball home neatly for the second goal.  Play continued in a vigorous style and tackles were aggressive, with a few needing the ref's attention.

 

The match ended 2-1, with the Whites no doubt feeling unlucky and frustrated.  The Blue team continue their drive for the Home Counties Girls Football League [Division One] title which promises to be a close run affair.

 

After the match, in an interview, Ally said, “The Whites played well, they gave us a good match." 
Paul Fox, team manger and coach commented, “This was always going to be hard.  In the event, the game was a credit to both sides”.