Belper Ladies 4th XI 1-1 Derby Asterdale Ladies 3rd XI

I'd love to write a detailed match report but the truth of it is I can barely remember yesterday as I spent most of it with a head that felt like wet cotton wool! Any more posts to fill in detail would be greatly appreciated.

We started the game with lots and lots of pressure on Belper but unable to convert it to a goal. At half time it was still 0-0. We continued the second half with the pressure and finally after about 10 minutes managed to convert it with a lovely reverse stick strike from Jo that beat the keeper. Unfortunately as can happen so often we conceded in the next 3 minutes as Belper scored a goal against the run of play that bounced 2 feet in the air on a seam of the bone dry water based pitch over Megan as she went down to block the shot, on any decent pitch she would have saved it! (why on earth do Belper refuse to water their pitch?? It makes it so difficult to play on) For the last 10 minutes of the game we did well to defend against Belper as our midfielders started to feel the effort that they had been putting in and tired; allowing Belper more runs at defence.

All in all it was a valiant effort from the team and although we didn't get the result we wanted so badly we showed that we are made of strong stuff. Our midfielders dominated most of the game and as a combined effort I shudder to think how many miles they covered during the game! Our defenders were really solid at the back and I know the forward line tried hard to get the goals we so desperately needed. It wasn't an easy match with the very vocal Belper crowd and their 12th player (holding a whistle) all adding to the pressure on us - but hey, it's tough at the top!

We have possibly the biggest match of the season next week and with a full squad available, taking on board the lessons learned from the last 2 matches we're looking good! All supporters are welcome.

Thanks to Karl Lucas for stepping in to umpire when we were yet again struggling to find an umpire and thanks to Mother Neilson for her support (sorry if I missed anyone else). Player of the match - Heather who had a brilliant game! Donkey - Annie who left the team balls for dead on Tuesday night after promising so convincingly that she would take good care of them.