...and that's over 30 goals in three games

Herne Bay Ladies vs Ridgewaye League. 17th March 2013

Result: Herne Bay Ladies 11 - Ridgewaye 0

Today's game on past games was always going to be a test for us, us I regarded this game a potential banana skin for us if we didn't focus on the job in hand! We have played Ridgewaye twice before once in the league, W 5-2, and once in the cup, W 3-1. Both occasions they played some good football and caused a few problems for us. Ridgewaye are also the other finalists in the Divisional Cup at the end of April! So today's game was important for many reasons! As before, I gave the girls a set target for the game. Todays target was to have a goal difference of at least 5 goals and a clean sheet. The ladies did not disappoint!

For some reason it takes a little bit of time before we settle down into games and it's normally the first goal that relaxes us, but Ridgewaye set up today to have a real good go at us and fair play to them when our attacks broke down they attacked in numbers, however once again solid defending from Chantelle Bleau, Enya Lynch, Rachel Tracy and Charlie Hayes didn't allow the Ridgewaye attack to have any easy chances and Emily Johnson in goal was mostly a spectator for the first half. Once we found our footing and got use to the formation that Ridgewaye were playing it didn't take too long before the first of many goals were scored! 15 minutes past and we were rewarded a corner, Lauren Wiltshire delivered the ball and Kate Foster unmarked popped up and headed in to the bottom corner!

It took all of one minute to score the next goal as we won the ball back quickly and attacked the goal, with Kiya Mills racing through and slotting home the second. For the next half hour we had plenty of chances but just could not find the back of the net, last ditched defending and some lucky goalkeeping kept Ridgewaye to a reasonable score until Kiya Mills popped up with her second on 40 minutes, this wasn't the end of the scoring in the first half! Having to take Rachel Tracy off due to injury, Alice Franks replaced her and after a little shuffle around Alice played wide right. Within minutes of coming on Alice went on a mazy run down the right and put in a strong low driven cross only to see it hit a Ridgewaye defender for an own goal! This concluded the first half scoring!

The Half time team talk was about focusing on the target in hand, with the empathise on keeping a clean sheet, as goal difference is key to our success!

The second half started very similar to the first, with Ridgewaye trying to get a quick goal by attacking in numbers, we were lucky on a couple of occasions, a good save by Emily Johnson and some rushed finishing ensured that we did not concede easily! Once again it took a little bit of time to score the next goal but It took just 3 minutes to score the next three goals! on 65 minutes Kate Foster scored, then Kiya and a minute later Vicky Holness got into the action by scoring her 69th of the campaign just 30 seconds after Kiya. From here it seemed to demoralise Ridgewaye and the floodgates opened for more goals! Two more were added by Kiya Mills with one being smashed into the top corner from a tight angle! Then with 15 minutes to go, Isabella Tulett came on for Lauren Wiltshire and put away another two goals and just missed out on completing her hat trick! The final whistle blew and the ladies completely smashed their target for the day!

No one before the game expected this game to be so one sides least of all myself, especially after Ridgewaye beat Long Lane res in the other semi final! However, with targets set for each game the ladies seem to have taken this on and delivered each time! Today, on paper was one of our hardest games to see the season out and to win so emphatically has helped our cause no end! Although Long Lane are still top we still have a game in hand but our goals today and clean sheet has dramatically improved our goal difference! Our next game is Sunday 24th March at Bell Meadow against Sheppey United, 2:00pm kick off!

Team: Emily Johnson, Chantelle Bleau, Enya Lynch, Rachel Tracy, Charlie Hayes, Shona Clark, Kate Foster, Lauren Wiltshire, Lesley Kay, Vicky Holness, Kiya Mills, Natalie Lewis, Clare Brown, Isabella Tulett, Alice Franks

Player of match: Kiya Mills