14th May - Cup Final!Reports by a very excited KatieMilton Keynes 1 v Abingdon 1 It was tough, but we did it! We retained the cup to complete a great double. After no goals in what felt like about the first 10 minutes, we opened the scoring through Simon, which was almost immediately cancelled out by an Abingdon long-shot. Pete then sank a long-shot of his own, and was then fouled after a side-feed to earn us a penalty. With regular penalty-taker Nov not on the pitch at the time, Katie resumed the role from last season to put us 3-1 in front. Abingdon were not, however, going to lie down, were winning lots of collects, and then scored two more of their own to equalise again. Jon then put us 4-3 up, and although we then missed another penalty (which we weren't quite sure why it had been awarded anyway), this did not matter because Jon scored a long-shot on our very next attack. Abingdon pulled one back just before half-time, to leave the score at the break finely balanced at 5-4. 
We made our planned changes at half-time, with Nov and Amanda coming on for Caz and Pete. Simon opened the second-half scoring to extend the lead to 6-4 and the divisions switched ends, but a couple of minutes later, Simon grabbed a ball just before an Abingdon girl could get to it, and everyone on both teams was stunned when the referee pointed to the spot. However, Abingdon showed some great sportsmanship by choosing to throw away the penalty. Jon then completed his hat-trick on our next attack, and Katie then sank a long-shot to leave us 8-4 in front. Abingdon were not yet finished, and pulled two goals back again, but just when it looked like there might be a switch of momentum, Amanda nipped that on the bud by scoring two identical short-range shots within a minute of each other. Even though Abingdon pulled two goals back again (all their goals being scored by two players, one of which seemed to have about an 80% success rate with long-shots), this time there was a different feeling - one that we were definitely not going to give up this lead! Nov then received a ball lobbed over to him when collecting from the front, was fouled on the shot and converted the penalty himself. Then Katie managed to run round her opponent, and when the other defending girl switched, passed the ball to Amanda who showed pinpoint accuracy again to score. Running-in-shots from Simon and Ali wrapped up the scoring, with the final score finishing 14-8. This was a real team effort, with all ten players contributing greatly to this win, with one division not letting in any goals at all. It's amazing to win the double in only our second season - hopefully we can go from strength to strength! Big thanks as well to Kirsty and Paul who came over to support the team. Team: Katie 2, Ali 1, Caz (sub Amanda half-time, 3), Suzanne, Jon 3, Simon 3, John, Pete 1 (sub Nov half-time, 1), 
Added 21/05/06 |