Ridgewood Rangers 3 - AFC Waverton 0
A rare afternoon kick off for the Waverton girls saw them back up to west Wirral where they were victorious last weekend. The Ridgewood Rangers side were though stronger than Irby Colts and were already well into an organised warm up when the Waverton team bus pulled into Fisher Lane.
Thanks to a great sporting gesture from Steve and the guys at Ridgewood, the home team volunteered to play with only 6 girls so as to provide an equal match with our 6. This was very welcome especially as they had 10 girls down to play.
Hollie called into team HQ on Friday night to warn of her potential absence due to sickness and called again in the morning to confirm her unavailability. Keira and Caitlin were on extended holidays so it was down to six for the second week running.
The Waverton girls lined up with Lucie the Reina in goal, Meg and Ellie the Carragher and Hypia (ok Ellie, Micah Richards!) at the back, Lily and Emma the Gerrard and Alonso in the midfield and Elia in the lone Torres role up front. See you can get away with this kind of thing when the two red devils Heather and Keira are away.
The pitch was big and the early pressure came from the home side. Fortunately the defence and Lucie dealt with the threats. Waverton relied upon breakaways with Elia and Lily both going close. Halfway through the first period a corner came over and was deflected past Lucie who did her best to stretch to keep it out.
Half time and a much needed rest. Elia had aggravated an injury but hobbled on, whilst the positions stayed the same. Good work between Elia, Lily and Emma resulted in a number of good runs at goal and captain Lily hit the post from one of them. Ellie pushed up from the back and made some good deep runs whilst Meg held things together. Lucie kept them out with a number of fine saves but two goals from the Rangers late in the half put the game beyond doubt. The third goal came from a break when Waverton had been pushing up and Lucie was powerless to stop the blue shirts bearing down on her.
Ellie Riste and Elia swapped positions to try to get a goal back and to protect Elia's ankle. With the luxury of subs, the Rangers finished much stronger but Waverton could have easily have nicked a goal back near the end.
Player of the match as voted by Ridgewood - Ellie Riste, and for Ridgewood as voted by Waverton - Molly Brewster.
Once again thanks to Ridgewood coaches and girls for the offer to play 6 v 6. We wish them best of luck for the rest of the season.
