Girls Match Reports

National Semi-final - Nottinghamshire U16  v  Leicestershire U16

Nottinghamshire  4  v  6  Leicestershire   (AET/PENS)

There was bitter disappointment for the Nottinghamshire Under 16 girls’ squad when they were defeated by Leicestershire on penalties in the semi-final of the English Schools’ F.A. County Championship at Collingham. Nottinghamshire had defeated Leicestershire 5-1 in the group stages of the competition and after Notts had beaten Durham and Leicestershire had won in Northumberland, the two met again in a bid for a place in the national final.

Notts started confidently although the visitors should have scored early when Kirsty Farnsworth was clear with only May Earps to beat but failed to connect with the ball They were made to pay for this miss when after a good inter-passing move by Paxton Johnson and Meg Horrey, Grace John manoeuvred herself into a shooting position and placed her shot past the Leicestershire keeper just inside the post. Notts packed the midfield and generally controlled the first 20 minutes of the game with Charlotte Taylor outstanding in midfield.

As was typical of a fluctuating game, Leicestershire then had a good spell and Nottinghamshire keeper Mary Earps made a couple of good saves while Emma Connington made a wonderful late tackle to stop another dangerous attack. A misjudgement of a bouncing ball by Hannah Lawrence just before half time allowed Katie Lowder to run clear and place the ball past Earps into the corner to make the interval score 1-1.

Leicestershire pressurised the Nottinghamshire defence in the early stages of the second half and after Farnsworth hit the post and Mary Earps had thwarted them with another excellent save, they took the lead through the always dangerous Farnsworth This led to a spell of strong pressure from the visitors and Amy Longhurst hit a shot just wide before Nottinghamshire regained their composure. They forced several corners and from one of these, a header seemed as if it might have gone over the line while from a second which was cleared to the edge of the penalty area, Meg Howard hit a rising shot over the bar.

Nottinghamshire equalised with 15 minutes left when Paxton Johnson’ shot was half saved by the keeper but Grace John was the first to react and hit the loose ball in to make the score 2-2. Both sides then had chances to settle the game with Notts having the better of them but neither could break the stalemate and the game went into extra time.

Both sides were very tired and although there were some half-chances, the score remained the same so the game went to penalties. Both teams scored their first three shots and Leicestershire went into a 4-3 lead before Notts missed their fourth kick and then went out of the competition in the cruellest of ways as Lowder made it 5-3.

Leicestershire will now meet either Essex or Hampshire in the final but Notts will have the memories of a season when they won five and drew two of their seven matches.