A tough end to end game

On a rainy Saturday Marlborough 1s drove down to Tidworth to play their home game against Bournemouth 2s.

There was a a pause in the rain for the two sides to make the most of their game on a surface neither team was used to. A very heavy sand based pitch with little to no bounce.

Bournemouth came out strong in the first half. Goalkeeper Vicky Moxham had to make some strong saves to keep the score at 0-0. The Marlborough defence managed to hold off the quick passing Bournemouth attackers but this pressure finally results in a goal from free play taking the score to 1-0.

Marlborough were not deterred by this and they fought back. Emily Carter-Davies managed to play some excellent passes from defence to Amy Davidson and Annabel Ashley out on the wing and Marlborough were now starting to create space. Through some fantastic passing between Amy, Alice Thompson and Neve Beer the ball was driven from the left to Sophie Fynn at the top of the D. Sophie took her time, saw space in the Bournemouth D and shot a superb strike scoring Marlborough’s first goal and bringing the score level at 1-1.

The game became a much more even affair for the rest of the first half and Bella Busby, Neve, TessChristmas and Milly Dawson all had chances in the D but Marlborough could not quite convert.

The second half saw Marlborough come out strong winning short corners and again making use of the wider space. However, Bournemouth soon started to dominate the second half and Marlborough were on the defence. Bournemouth sent all of their players forward and they were applying the pressure forcing Beth and Emily to make some strong tackles to warn them off.

Marlborough had a few strong breaks during this period and Milly almost scored from the right post but she could not quite reach Jess Davis’ square ball. Marlborough stayed strong for the final ten minutes and worked hard defensively to keep the final score at 1-1.

The very well deserved Marlborough News Online Player of the match was awarded to Alice Thompson