Tottenham Hotspur Ladies FC -

Under-12s reports 2003-04

Forward Robyn Downie lead the way again, bagging four goals with the first coming inside the first two minutes to set the Under 12s on their way to a big win. 

Spurs other goals were added by Leesa Shields, Daisy Beattie, Kyarnah Hunte and Alex Keown, but Carla Zaccarini was Spurs Player of the Match for her solid centre half performance.

Manager Glenn Weaver said, "I’m really pleased with the build-up to the season, the hard work the team have put in and the talented players we have added to the squad.  We will be able to measure how far we’ve come next week when we take on Luton Town Belles, last year’s Double winners, in our first league game.  The side look bigger and stronger than 12 months ago, so I’m hopeful that we will finish in the top half of the table.”  

The first half was spent trying to create chances and the girls had to work hard to keep Luton under control.  Midway through the half, Ricole Vyse had to dive low at the near post to stop the home team taking the lead.

The whole team had to dig in deep and support each other, a challenge they all rose to and looked strong approaching the interval.

Spurs seemed full of belief as they started the second half, attacking the Luton goal from the start.  The team searched for space and in the third minute of the second half Eva Pentel received the ball inside the box and placed it in the corner of the net to give Tottenham the lead.

With the first goal of the new season out of the way, the team's hunger for another goal grew and with great teamwork they did not have to wait long.  With 12 mins gone, Daisy Beattie picked the ball up on the wing and headed down the line.  She crossed the ball well and there was Sophie Petros waiting to calmly double the lead.

Luton still came at Spurs and team effort was still needed, but just four mins later Leesa Shields found herself on the halfway line and fancied a run.  As she reached twenty yards from goal and with the keeper coming out, she cheekily chipped the ball over the keeper and that was enough to see the team get maximum points from what was a hard fought game.

After the game manager Glenn Weaver praised the girls for the strength and hard work that they had put in.  "On days like today, in a game that saw three well worked goals, another clean sheet and a brilliant overall team performance, it would be impossible to give man of the match to a single person and that this week the whole team deserved the award".

During the first half, Spurs opened up the pitch with some good passing to the wide positions, making it difficult for Harvesters to close the way to goal.  Daisy Beattie had already been denied by an advancing keeper before Sophie Petros broke through in the sixth minute.  As the keeper came out, Sophie lobbed the ball over her with Daisy applying the finishing touch close to the goal-line.

Harvesters put in a good shot from the left edge of the box, but it flew just wide of the goal, before play moved towards their own goal.  Leesa Shields made good progress down the left wing and passed down the line to Sophie, who cut inside and lifted her shot over the arms of the keeper to give Spurs a 2-0 lead.

Sophie was causing Harvesters a lot of trouble with her dribbling and a run through the middle ended with a shot against the post that Robyn reacted to first and knocked over the line.  The post also featured in the next action, but it was the Tottenham post that kept a Harvesters shot out and Ricole Vyse blocked the follow-up shot.

Spurs pressed on again after the break and a powerful run by Robyn on the right fed Alex Keown at the far post and her shot rattled the crossbar.  A minute later, Daisy fed Robyn, who moved into the penalty area and hit home number four.

Although Tottenham still went forward, they were caught out by a long ball that saw the Harvesters number ten brought down by Ricole in the area, leaving both players needing attention.  Ricole carried on with a painful knock on her knee, but the Harvesters forward could not continue after landing heavily on the hard pitch (we hope she makes a speedy recovery).  The penalty was converted and despite hobbling on, Ricole made a couple of good saves, but with the last attack of the game, the visitors struck again with a high shot into the top of the goal from in the area to make the final score 4-2.

Spurs started brightly and had several good opportunities before Kyarnah Hunte scored with a rasping drive from wide on the right.

After the break, Belmont boldly took the game to Spurs and were rewarded with
an equaliser from a free-kick after 45 minutes. Spurs rallied in the final ten minutes and were unlucky not to snatch the game through good efforts from Robyn Downie and Lauren Taylor-Marks.

Just before the break, Spurs added a second when the Garston keeper handled just outside the box and captain Shikiera Lake-Richards fired the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal.

The second half developed into a rather ping-pong affair in the midfield area with both sides creating few chances.  The best chance fell to Garston in the last five minutes when they hit the post. 

The final score ended 2-0 to Spurs in a game played in an excellent spirit.

The Under 12's lost their first league game of the season when they fell 2-0 to QPR Ladies FC in the Herts Girls Football League.

Spurs fell behind as early as the second minute, when they failed to clear their lines from a corner and QPR capitalised. QPR continued to dominate for large periods of the rest of the first half, but stout resistance from the Spurs defence kept them at bay.

Spurs started the second half more brightly and kept the pressure on QPR for the opening 15 minutes without capitalising on their possession. QPR again came back into the game in the last 15 minutes and scored a second goal in the dying minutes.

Missing Ryah Vyse out ill and Zoe Jackson with a broken wrist, the Spurs goalscorers were Daisy Beattie (2), Lauren Taylor Marks (2), Eva Pentel and Robyn Downie in a game that saw them dominate for long periods.

After taking an early 3-0 lead through goals from Sophie Petros (2) and Robyn Downie as early as the 9th minute, Spurs took their foot of the gas and allowed Harvesters back into the game with a goal just before the break.

Sophie Petros completed her hat-trick just after the break to put Spurs 4-1 up, but Harvesters fought back again with another two goals to cut Spurs advantage to a single goal.  Petros then added her fourth and Spurs fifth on
full time.  However, in the six minutes of time added on, Harvesters managed to add a fourth goal through a Spurs own goal and an extremely disputable penalty with the last kick of the match to earn them a share of the spoils.