Ladies 1st XI win at Aztecs contributes towards winning Chairmans Trophy for the club

Aztecs 1st XI 1-4 Derby 1st XI


This was as good an example of a “game of 2 halves” as is possible to describe.

Having lost Captain Lisa this week with DVT I gave an opportunity to young Megan Price (3rd XI) in goal and with other players unavailable or running late I introduced into the 1st XI fold a “Rachael Whittaker” wannabe going by the name of Helen Poultney, both new recruits more than played their part today.

Aztecs 2’s had earlier in the day been thumped by our Ladies 2’s and their 1’s keeper -playing outfield for Aztecs 2’s- picked up an injury which led to the playing of a rather strange looking “Lady Keeper” in goal.

Hang on, wasn’t that the Mansfield Mens 2’s keeper?

Yes it was but we had no complaint, this was a preseason warm up for us and would enable me to assess how our forward line was looking.

So to the game….

We started slowly and a little nervous which was understandable but soon got into our stride putting the Aztecs back line under some fierce pressure. The opening goal for Derby came from the returning Laura Skaife……………

Hang on just got to open the 2nd pint bottle of Stella……..







Ahhhhh that’s better……



so where was I, oh yes Skaifey. A packed Aztecs circle wasn’t enough to stop Laura opening her account for the season with a well placed shot on 10 minutes to start the scoring much to the displeasure of the Mansfield men’s 2’s keeper.

Aztecs 0-1 Derby

Then it was time for more displeasure for the Aztecs stand-in Keeper as Taran just took him apart with 2 pieces of great individual skill, sending him a dummy one way and slotting the ball in the opposite corner on 17 mins to send Derby 2-0 up and then having the fantastic audacity and brilliance to receive the ball directly in front of the keeper, do a full 360 degree pirouette, totally bamboozling him and slotting the ball home in the far corner for her 2nd on 20 mins. Taran at her absolute relaxed and fantastic best. Love it.

Aztecs 0-3 Derby

Aztecs did have their moments though but every time they broke away at our defence they found one player at her imperious best, Marie Dymond, who just snuffed out any threat they had. But what some may see as a surprise was a “Granny” we had playing at Left Back for Derby who was “dare I say” even better than Marie? Theresa Alton is one of those players that is a complete nightmare to coach and play with, she has flashes of brilliance in her strength of tackling and periods of absolute horror with her distribution but TODAY she was just the Player of the Match (Coach and Managers Choice). Her tackling was fierce and her distribution spot on. Theresa you were a star.

Aztecs moment came on 24 minutes when a break away saw them for the only time in the match not closed down on the top of the ‘D’. The striker shot towards a nervous Megan who misjudged the pace of the ball and looked in horror as the ball went between her legs and crossed the line. Very unfortunate, but what was great to see was the support and encouragement she got from the rest of the squad and Megan’s strength of character in not letting this phase her at all. Megan will no doubt be a star of the future for Derby.

Aztecs 1-3 Derby.

Ok……. So here we go……. Rachael Whittaker are you listening in HONG KONG?

Helen Poultney (Rach’s bestist matey and long lost drinking buddy) had played for the 2’s earlier in the day but I asked her to bench for us as Ali was struggling to get back from North Yorkshire in time for the start, Helen was happy to be involved but didn’t expect to play----- wrong !

25 mins in and Helen gets the call to play her 1st competitive match with the ladies 1st XI. She took to the field in Rachael’s Position, wearing Rachael’s shirt and guess what happened next?

No she didn’t break open a bottle of vodka or demand a jagerbomb or 5 before she would play, but did have a dream debut.

32 mins in, we break out from midfield, Kath to Kelly, spread wide out to Ali, the ball gets slipped inside to Taran, she slips it past the Aztecs Keeper to the far post, up pops Rachael -sorry- Helen to calmly SMASH the ball against the backboard to give Derby a 4-1 lead and achieve what few others have and score a goal for the 1st XI in a competitive fixture on her debut. (Not even Rachael did that!)

Guess what happened next ????????

Yes I took her off tee hee hee.

HALF TIME

Aztecs 1-4 Derby

I know I’ve waxed lyrical about the 1st half but wait till you hear about the 2nd half…….

It was rubbish, we should have scored 10 but actually scored 0. I think most of the team (other than Megan) had some opportunity or other on goal but just couldn’t get the ball over the line.

It was incredible but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Final score

Aztecs 1 – 4 Derby


A subdued Derby team left the field but there were some good positive for the day.

The team spirit was there for all to see, Megans debut in goal was very good (it’s a big step from the Ladies 3’s to the Ladies 1’s) she made some good saves and her positioning sense was very very good. Ali looked fitter than ever, Marie was … well Marie, just top draw, Kelly, Laura Skaife and well everyone really was just where I expected them to be at this stage of pre-season or better.

It may have been disappointing to only win 4-1 but Coach is happy with what I saw.

Oh and Helen scored on debut, but there were some negative mutterings from the side line with Helen playing for us today that really surprised me. Some people have to realise that this is a team game, each player that has the honour (and it is an honour) of putting on a 1ST XI shirt does so with pride and is selected on merit… I was very disappointed with the 1 person that had an issue with her being on the pitch.

I wouldn’t normally do this but I’m going to name the offender !!!!

HELENA HONARMAND


Helena. Just because I inadvertently called Helen ‘H’ doesn’t mean we don’t love you anymore, your outburst of “I don’t like Andy calling her ‘H’, I’m supposed to be ‘H’ was a quite shocking outburst of insecurity and jealousy.

BUT SO FUNNY ( I think a little wee came out)

So there we go

Game over, 1st win, next week Barton away.

Well done all and welcome back…..

Now where’s that corkscrew…… Ahh there it is NEXT TO THE TROPHY

Get in there, I love winning