Chloe Lawrence hit a
hat-trick to pave the way for a comprehensive 8-0 victory against
Stevenage Borough Juniors. Further goals came from Lucy Abbate, Laura
Govier, Samantha Chase, Gemma Coots and Sinem Melin.
With no league fixture the under 14's
played a friendly against Kent Magpies under 15's. They slipped to a 4-2
defeat, Sarah Green and Laura Govier the scorers.
The
under 14's were awarded a walk over to the London Youth County Cup
semi-final when opponents Arsenal failed to register their players in
time.We now meet Watford in the semi-final, the match due to be played
on 4th November.
The exertions of the previous day's game
and travelling took a heavy toll on the Under 14's who crashed out of the
Herts. Girls League League cup competition 10-0 to Watford Ladies in a game
played in atrocious conditions.
The under 14's returned to winning ways
with a hard fought 3-1 victory over previously unbeaten Leyton Orient in
the Hertfordshire Girls League with goals from Laura Govier, Sarah Green
and Gabriella Pierro.
The
under 14's faced a very strong Watford side, featuring many girls who
had come from the Arsenal school of excellence, in the semi-final of the
London FA Youth Cup. Watford scored with their first three
attacks, but Tottenham came back into the match and took the game to the
Hornets, despite conceding two more before half-time. With the
result decided, the girls pressed on and got their reward when a Spurs
goal was scored by Sarah Green.
They
eventually
lost 9-1, but played on with great heart, with a good performance from
the busy Jade Harris in goal.
The under 14's bagged a hatful of goals in this Herts
Girls League encounter.
The Spurs scorers were Sarah Green 5, Laura Govier 3,
Kerry Boyce 3, Chloe Lawrence 3, Gemma Coots 3, Lucy Abbate 2, Sinem
Melin, Gabriella Pierro and an own goal.
After earlier heavy cup defeats against
Watford Ladies, the Under 14's gave a totally committed performance in
eventually losing 3-0 in the HGFL.
Spurs went close on a number of occasions
through the attacking partnership of Chloe Lawrence and Laura Govier.
Gemma Coots and Jenny Homer were outstanding in the centre of midfield
along with the central defensive pairing of Samantha Crew and Rebecca
Sack.
The Under 14's played a friendly fixture
against Crystal Palace Ladies and run out comfortable 7-0 victors.
Midfielder Gemma Coots continued
her rich vein of goalscoring form with a hat-trick with Spurs other
goals coming from Laura Govier (2),Sarah Green and Chloe Lawrence.
The Under 14 secured a comfortable 5-0
victory over North Herts. Ladybirds at a wet and windy Hitchin.
The side welcomed back centre forward
Samantha Chase after a long absence with a serious knee injury and she
marked her return with a goal as early as the second minute.
Spurs looked comfortable throughout and
won well, with further goals coming from Gemma Coots(2), an own goal and
another effort from Chase.
The Under 14's were pushed all the way,
but managed to eventually secure a 2-1 victory against Garston Girls to
maintain an outside chance for the League title.
Sam Chase opened the scoring for Spurs
after 14 minutes. Spurs then missed several good chances before
Garston equalised from a powerful header after 21 minutes. An
excellent through ball from Chase set up Sarah Green to put Spurs back
ahead after 30 minutes.
The second half was a ding-dong affair with centre half Claire Griffiths
and sweeper Samantha Crew doing an excellent defensive job against a
series of long throws and corners from Garston. The away side
nearly equalised with minutes left, but keeper Jade Harris managed to
claw the ball off the line at the death.
In extremely windy conditions, the Under
14's secured a 3-2 victory against Garston Girls. Sarah Green
opened the scoring in the first half with Laura Govier adding a second
early in the second half.
Garston converted a penalty to reduced
the arrears to 2-1, but Spurs increased their lead to 3-1 when a
speculative lob from Jenny Homer beat the Garston keeper.
Garston came back to reduce the deficit
to a single goal with eight minutes left, but Spurs managed to hold out
for a 3-2 victory that keeps them still in the championship race.
With a home match against bottom of the
table Ham and High, the Tottenham team ran up a 15-0 scoreline to help
their goal difference.
The rout began in the first minute with
Sarah Green forcing the ball in at the far post, but the Ham and High
defence held out for another quarter of an hour before the second
goal. Sam Chase chipped the ball through the heart of the back
line and Laura Govier ran on to smash the ball past the keeper.
Barely a minute had passed before it was
3-0. A Kerry Boyce cross from the left was shot home at the far
post from close range by Green, reproducing her first effort.
With 28 minutes gone, there was a
goalmouth scramble that saw the ball hit the bar and the post before
Govier scored from close in. Two minutes after, a Sarah Green
cross hit the bar and although the ball fell to Govier in front of the
net, the keeper did well to stop another goal.
Just after the half-hour, Gemma Coots
produced a well weighted pass to Sam Chase, who powered the ball home
for number five and there was time for one more before the break, when
Coots again slipped in Jenny Homer to score.
A change of keeper in the second half for
Ham and High brought little more luck, as Spurs pressed forward
relentlessly. The visitors did put up a fight in the second half
and tried to hit Tottenham on the break a few times, but it was almost
one-way traffic.
A minute in and Kerry Boyce made it 7-0,
tucking away a right wing cross from Green at the far post. On 44
minutes, Homer ran through the defence to shoot past the keeper and two
minutes later, Sam Crew received a H&H goal-kick and shot home from
around 12 yards to make it nine.
It was Crew who came closest to adding to
the tally with a shot from outside the box that hit the bar, but with 54
minutes played, she produced a cross to the far post that hit the
woodwork and Gabbi Pierro struck to take the Spurs score into double
figures.
This started a bit of an avalanche, with
Sarah Green taking the ball from a clearance and hitting it back past
the keeper from 15 yards out a minute later to complete her hat-trick
and then straight after, her cross was flicked up by Homer in the box
for Kelly Boyce to meet it with a firm header to make the score
12-0. Kelly completed her hat-trick on the hour when she converted
Green's right wing cross at the far post again.
The match was drawing to an end when
Spurs got two more in the last five minutes. Sinem Melin ran
through the Ham and High defence to score with a firm shot from the edge
of the penalty area, then the final goal had a touch of route one about
it, as Sam Chase (deputising in goal in the second half) made a long
clearance that was flicked through for Sam Crew to run onto and power a
shot past the stranded goalie.
Full credit must go to Ham and High for a
sporting performance in the game and one in which they never gave up.
Action photos from this match will appear
in the next few days.
The Under 14's lost 0-7 this morning in a
lacklustre performance. The girls now need to win the last two matches
of the season to finish second in their league.
In a tough top of the table clash, the
Under 14's battled hard but slipped to a 2-0 against Queens Park
Rangers.
Spurs go into the last game of the season
needing a victory over Harpenden Girls and QPR to lose at Leyton Orient
to stand a chance of finishing second.
Tottenham took this game to Harpenden from the kick off and scored
heavily to try and secure second place in their division behind Watford.
In one of the best performances of the
season, Spurs knocked the ball about nicely and opened the Harpenden
defence up at regular intervals.
An early goal by Jenny Homer in the fifth
minute, who volleyed home a Cas Brown chip to the far post, set the tone
for the goal rush that was about to come. Gabbi Pierro started her
own tally two minutes later, when she chipped the onrushing keeper to
make it 2-0.
Spurs took advantage of the short
Harpenden goalie and Samantha Chase repeated the treatment with another
lob in the 14th minute, something Gabbi copied with 20 minutes
gone. Pierro completed her hat-trick in the 27th minute, when she
placed a bouncing half-volley neatly past the keeper and inside the
post. This was the first of three goals in two minutes.
With Gemma Coots and Cas Brown pulling
the strings in midfield, Tottenham were cruising, but they were rocked
when a long ball was nipped off the foot of a Spurs defender and shot
past the under-employed Jade Harris in the Spurs goal. It was
Coots who hit back straight away though, perfecting a 25 yard lob over
the keeper with great precision to take the team into the break 6-1 up.
Apart from Beck Sack clearing off the
line as Harris' clearance bounced off a Harpenden forward, it was one
way traffic. Spurs had to be patient and it was the 48th minute
before Sam Chase put Sinem Melin through with a clever reverse pass, and
the midfielder slipped the ball past the keeper for Tottenham's seventh.
With little to do at the back, Beck Sack
and Sam Crew moved forward with the ball and Sarah Green pushed on on
the right wing to cause Harpenden problems. The pressure that
Spurs were exerting paid off when Chase herself nicked the ball from a
hesitant defender and blasted the shot for number eight in the 56th
minute, which was quickly followed by Pierro's fourth after Crew crossed
and the ball was cleared to the edge of the area. The Tottenham forward
hit a shot just under the bar that the keeper got her hands to, but
could not stop.
It was left to Samantha Chase to round
off the scoring with her hat-trick goal (63 minutes) and her fourth
(67). The first came when the goalkeeper was unable to gather the
ball and Sam slid in to toe-poke it home and the scoring was concluded
with a fierce strike from 16 yards that ripped past the keeper.
With the QPR v Orient game being unable
to be played because of a waterlogged pitch, the goals scored might just
give Spurs the second position, subject to a League ruling on the other
match.
Whatever the outcome, this performance
shows that the team have done excellently this season and can progress
next year as a good group of players.
Footnote : Spurs gained the points
they needed to get second place as the match between Leyton Orient and QPR was not
rearranged.
