| A final flourish
from Tottenham Hostpur Ladies Under-14s ended their league programme
with a big win, but that looked unlikely after a sluggish first half
performance.
It took Spurs a while to settle against a
determined Buntingford side, who were first to a big percentage of balls
in the opening half. Twelve minutes had passed before Bonnie
Cullinan opened the scoring, when she chipped the ball over the Cougars
keeper following a great run along the right wing by Renee
Johnson-Allen.
Rebecca Williams capitalised on a
cross-shot from Kelly Farace in the 16th minute, turning the ball home
as it sped across the six yard box to double the lead. That was
further extended in the next minute, as Bonnie took a pass on the edge
of the area, turned away from her marker and hit a low left footed shot
just inside the post for 3-0.
The score was taken to 4-0 when a
deflection took a Bonnie Cullinan shot past the goalie, but Spurs were
still not playing fluently. Despite this, five minutes before the
break, Charmaine Goodwin took a shot from six yards out which rebounded
across the goal and out after hitting the post.
Some wise words from manager Alex Fearon
and coach Gill Blackmore emphasised the need for the girls to use the
short pass to maintain possession and open up the opposition. This
was put into practice ina much improved second half performance.
A neat pass caused Lizzie Lodge to seize
on a loose ball as she broke into the penalty box and thumped home
Tottenham's fifth in the 13th minute of the second half, which became
six a minute after, when a right wing corner dropped to Kelly Farace to
crash the ball into the net.
Bonnie Cullinan became provider in the
second half, when her 57th minute corner caused panic in the Buntingford
defence, who tried to clear, but saw the ball bounce off Charmaine
Goodwin, who was blocking the clearance and rebound back past the
helpless keeper. The score-line became 8-0 in the 59th minute, as
a very fluent passing move saw the ball flow through Lizzie De Asha to
Renee Johnson-Allen on the left wing. She exchanged passes with Bonnie
and then played a cross into the far post, where Samantha garner arrived
to score her first goal for the club.
Two identical goals in two minutes late
in the game rounded off the scoring and provided some pleasure as they
came straight from the training ground. Left wing corners by
Bonnie in the 74th and 76th minutes were both met by the head of Renee
to find the net and make the final score 10-0.
To Buntingford's credit, they never gave
up and had some good individual performances, but following the
half-time interval, Spurs finally got their passing game into gear and
finished well to seal a convincing win.
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