Results April 13th – April 17th & April 30th

April 19, 2011 · Filed Under Club News 

 Mini Soccer

Upton Under 9’s completed their league programme with two fine displays against top of the league Greenleas and lowly Delta Rangers.
Upton were unlucky not to put Greenleas to the sword with a display worthy of league champions themselves. Upton took the lead with an own goal from a corner and completely took charge of this encounter with some sparkling football. Upton’s work was undone be two minutes of football that saw them lose three goals from sloppy defending from set pieces. Failing to deal with high balls in the box has been Upton’s undoing this season and their failing to attack the ball and clear there lines cost them dearly with three free headers picked off by eager Greenleas strike force. However, Upton did rally and never gave up pulling a goal back from Connor Jones with a tremendous strike against a keeper that was there for the taking. Unfortunately the score remained unchanged and Upton should count themselves unlucky to have lost this encounter. Man of the match was Reece Pirie. Another notch on the learning curve:- Upton U9s (2) v (3) Greenleas

The final match of the season was a different story. With the league no longer possible, Upton identified this game as an experiment. Many players were played out of position in a bid to take them out of their comfort zones and some fantastic football was played by all. Goals were scored by Reece Pirie with a shot from the half way line (that’s not a misprint) and Lewis Heath who took his goal superbly on the left, cutting inside and shooting hard past the keeper. Most notable changes were Reece Pirie and Mark Lewis playing in defence. The two big lads didnt put a foot wrong and it was admirable to see them both perform so well as did Joe Farrell who started on the right then switched to the left. This names just a few. Tremendous performance and well worthy of the win. Man of the match was Reece Pirie:- Upton U9’s (2) v (0) Delta Rangers

Steve and myself would like to thank all of the parents for their help and support over the season. Without them we really would not have been able to have had the season that we have had. Points to note are the top scorer was Mark Lewis with 11 and Reece Pirie with 6 Man of Match awards but this should not detract from a team that play for each other and have grown in strength and stature throughout this campaign. Proud….both of us!

Girls

First of all, we must mention the Under 16s  semi final win last Thursday. Having recently lost 7 – 6 in a league game to Delta, we knew this was going to be a difficult game. The girls seemed slow to settle down and Delta hit the post with an early chance, before scoring twice. However, Upton got into the game and started playing better football, and were rewarded before half time when Abbie Bateman’s  emphatic strike pulled one back. 2 – 1 down at half time, but the goal had restored confidence. Upton came out strongly, and after Freya Mumford equalised with another great finish, further goals from Freya, Abbie  and Louise O’Brien put the result in no doubt. When Delta did threaten, Jess Taylor was equal to the threat and made a series of good saves, earning her the player of the match award. Well done to Peter McNay and all the team – Abbie, Jess D, Jess T, Holly, Louise, Kate, Lucy, Freya and Vicky –  who all played brilliantly and deserved the result.
 
Under 10s  did not have a game this week 

Under 12s – After the euphoria of the cup win last week we were back down to earth with a bump in a tough fixture against Wallasey Wanderers, where we had some good scoring opportunities but the ball couldn’t be forced past a very good keeper. 

The opposition were very strong, fit and well motivated, they passed the ball well and closed us down quickly when we had possession. The team thought Shannon Navarro had opened the scoring in the first half, but the referee decided the ball had not crossed the line. Defences were generally on top and as the tension grew (certainly on the touchline among the fans) Upton conceded from a corner mid way through the second half. Despite playing some very good football and probably having more attempts at goal, we just couldn’t get the equaliser. That said, full credit to all the girls who did everything that was asked of them, played their hearts out, and ran and ran for the cause.

The game ended 1-0 to Wallasey, our player of the game was Emma Johnson.

Under 14s  again were not able to play a fixture, this time because we were unable to field the minimum squad. An ankle injury to Aira adds to our problems and it is very disappointing that we have been unable to play any games recently, partly because of a lack of fixtures from the league when we did have enough players; partly when the opposition could not field a team; and twice because we could not field a team ourselves. 

Under 14 Rangers went to title challenging Greenleas Celtic, all but one of whom are a year older. They are a big,strong team who pass well, and we didn’t make things difficult enough for them in the first half. An unfortunate early penalty gave Celtic the lead, and they went on to score another 4 before half time. A much improved performance in the second half led a a few chances, and Isabel Nolan, working hard on her own up front, was rewarded with a consolation goal. In the end Celtic won 8 – 1, but the second half performance had a lot of positives. Sarah Buckley  was voted player of the match by the opposition. She really had very little chance with any of the goals, and made a string of excellent saves in the second half in particular.

Under 16s, missing Jess Davies and Lucy McKeown, played Irby in a taster for the knockout Cup final. Without a substitute and on a warm day, all the players put in a great effort, but lost 3 – 1 in a very entertaining game. The final should be a great game to watch (so long as the league decide not to use an 11 a side pitch again). Abbie Bateman scored Upton’s goal, and Jess Taylor was player of the match

Under 10s v Beechwood played their fixture early (last Wednesday) to enable both clubs to field full teams. Again another good performance by the girls. They completely dominated the game, and went ahead in the first couple of minutes through

another Taylor goal. Taylor netted again before half time to make it 2 – 0. The defence was solid – Jennifer and Rebecca put in great performances. Sophie and Yasmin  never stopped running. Anna Cull scored to make it 3 – 0,  then Ellie had a goal disallowed (ball went out). Ellen played the first half in goal and nearly scored in the second. Taylor Mayes was player of the match.

 
Under 12s v Rakers Belles – A welcome return to winning ways for the girls today in their last league game of the season.

On 3 minutes Morgan Mayes (captain for the day), in the holding midfield role, battled for the ball and presented it to Emma Johnson to open the scoring, 5 minutes later, Charlotte McNay, playing well at left back, collected a loose ball and fed it up to the attack. The ball was squared by Rebecca Pritchard-Howarth for Emma to record her 20th goal of the season and 2nd of the game. Within 2 minutes of the restart we were treated to another spectacular Charlotte Carroll goal. Shooting from just over the half way line, the ball looped over the keeper for her 5th of the season…3-0 Upton. Shannon Navarro and Jasmine Pugh hassled and harried the opposition defence and tested the keeper, both came close, but were unlucky not to score today.

Elizabeth Sullivan was brought on as right winger and it wasn’t long before she had the ball under her spell. Working with Jessica Farrell (who had come out of goal), Elizabeth battled through the defenders and fired home, we went in at half time 4-0 Upton.

After the break Rebecca was inspired. She won the ball, took on 3 defenders, then beat the keeper to take us 5-0 up. Soon after the restart she cleverly intercepted the ball and again caused havoc in the opposition defence. Striking the ball with her now trademark outside of the right foot, she recorded her 7th goal of the season 6-0 Upton.

Not to be outdone Elizabeth shrugged off the opposition to create space for herself, and made no mistake with her shot taking us to 7-0 and Elizabeth’s 8th goal of the season.

Katie Murray had now moved into the midfield role. She controlled the play and passed really well into and across the opposition box. One of the balls was collected by Morgan Mayes who hit it with such power that, although the keeper got hands on the ball, it was too hot to handle. The ball dropped just over the line, the spinning ball rolled back to the goal line and we feared another Frank Lampard moment,….. it was given, so captain Morgan scored her well deserved 1st goal of the season, Her joy was obvious. We only had one active player yet to score and we weren’t disappointed. With a few minutes to go,  Libby Boulger stepped up and hit her second well struck shot of the day (having seen her first attempt saved by the Rakers’ keeper). This time she squeezed the ball just inside the near post to lift the net. The crowd went mad, and Libby’s 1st of the season sparked a mini pitch invasion.

The game finished 9-0, our player of the game was Emma Johnson

 
Under 14s  could only field 5 players for the fixture against Greenleas Celtic. Two players were ill or injured, and many thanks to Andy at Greenleas for matching the sides when it became clear our other player was not coming. By then we were 3 or 4 – 0 down as, without a regular keeper and up against a strong side on a big pitch, this was always going to be difficult. Great credit goes to all the players there – Anna, Molly, Louise, Emily and Ellen – for working so hard on a warm day. This was the first time the team had played since mid March for a variety of reasons, and hopefully we can manage to get some good matches in during the next couple of weeks.
 
Under 14 Rangers played top of the table Wirral Hawks Ladies at Victoria Park last Thursday. The fixture was notified only the week before, and three players were away on holiday, including our regular keeper. In the circumstances, with 6 players on a big sloping pitch, full size goals, against a full team who are nearly all a year older, the girls (Jodie, Isabel, Nifa, Ceri, Leah and Poppy) did a magnificent job. Playing downhill in the first half, they kept it to 1 – 2 at half time, but eventually lost 2 – 10. Leah McNay and Isabel Nolan scored our goals, and Isabel was player of the match. 
 

Boys

Under 11’s were in Chalenge Cup action and progressed into the semi finals after a 12-2 win over Manor Cougars, John Adediran 4, Aidan Keogh 3, Michael Lynch 2, EWan Nolan 2, Aaron Finlay got the goals and Brandon Vickers was Man of Match.

Under 12’s went down 8-0 to Wirral Rangers in the Challenge Cup with Tom Wilson Man of Match.

Under 13’s beat Young Lions 8-0 with a hat trick from Ben Casey, Tommy Smith 2, Christian Rule, Ethan Doran & Charlie Brereton Weir getting the goals with Harry Ashcroft Man of Match

Under 14’s beat Wirral Rangers 14-0 with Man of Match Chris Turk 3, Tom Murphy 3, Joe Murray 2, Rob Cull 2, Callum Mernock, David O Brien, George Thomson & Morgan Woods getting the goals.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply