Despite heavy rain in the lead-up to kick-off and initial doubts about whether the match would go ahead, a late decision was made to play — and it proved well worth it as Bwood2000 U16 Girls produced a superb performance away at Brook House in Hayes.
The Wood started brightly, coping impressively with both the opposition and the challenging pitch conditions. Their positive approach was rewarded on 27 minutes when Olivia tapped home at the back post after Abi beat her defender and delivered a superb low cross.
Seven minutes later it was 2–0. Jess released Scarlett with a perfectly weighted pass, and she drove forward from inside her own half, carrying the ball around 40 yards at pace before calmly firing the ball beyond the advancing keeper.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with The Wood in control and restricting the hosts largely to set-piece opportunities. A series of corners provided Brook House’s main threat, but they were unable to make them count.
On 60 minutes the visitors extended their lead to three. A lovely exchange of passes between Olivia and Martha carved open the defence, allowing Martha to slot confidently past the keeper.
The hosts responded with determination and pulled a goal back on 70 minutes, briefly raising hopes of a comeback. However, those hopes were quickly extinguished when Olivia produced a moment of real quality, bending a superb strike into the top corner from a tight angle.
This was a true battle in testing, muddy conditions, but The Wood’s victory was thoroughly deserved. It was a stark contrast to last weekend’s match against Chesham on the astro, where our performance merited more but the result didn’t follow. Given the difficult conditions and the challenge of this venue, this win felt especially satisfying. Every player contributed to an excellent team performance, but Player of the Match went to Scarlett for her outstanding goal and relentless work rate throughout.
We are now unbeaten in 5 games and in great form as we head into the later part of the season. This is no more than the girls deserve after enduring a difficult start to the season but they have bounced back strongly and deserve immense credit.
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The U15 Girls had a depleted squad heading down to Goffs Oak for the lunch time ko on Saturday. A couple of late loan signings completed by the legendary Mary needed to be formalised late Friday in order to ensure we could get an XI on the pitch.
With Pola returning to the side for the first time since the U13s and Isabela back after a lay off. Team stalwart Theaya was required to play in goal and star striker Gabby took one for the team to play alongside Poppy N in an unlikely back 4.
The side had two sets of twins with Annie and Hollie who play up a year in the U16s helping out this week. Annie and Elsie lined up in familiar positions in midfield with Lola putting in a great shift at left back and Maisie up top.
Wood raced into an early lead with the lightning Maisie leaving the home defence for dead and calmly slotting the ball away. Soon afterwards Maisie again beat the offside trap (and a somewhat flag-happy home Lino). She slipped passed the hapless keeper and was all set to pass into an empty net when she was cynically chopped down. It was a reckless mistimed tackle which caused terrible damage to Maisie’s ankle as she was forced off the pitch.
The remainder of the first half was a scrappy affair, but with Annie J putting in a great shift in the centre of the park and Gabby playing superbly at the back we managed to see the half out.
After halftime the girls really started to play and soon went 2-0 up after some smart work from Lola ‘Lefty’ Phillips. From that point there was only one winner as the Wood pressed for more goals. Annie B jinked her way through the defence to score a class solo goal to make it 3 and could’ve followed with a second when she hit the post trying to score a pen she had won herself. The Wood dominated the majority of the second half with Elsie beating her full back regularly and with Pola and Hollie really starting to dominate in midfield with skipper Annie.
All in all it was a good 3 points against limited opposition, but it was great to get the game on and get the W. We are looking forward to getting Skippy, Aves, Embo, Aanya, and Ris back next week as we look to advance in the League Cup away at Bury!