On a surprisingly nice winter’s day, both sides are to be congratulated for switching venues to enable this Lassa Tyres u14 Semi Final to take place. Despite the recent poor weather, the game was played on a pitch ideal for passing football, and both teams did not let us down. Pinfleet started the game the brighter playing some bright confident football determined to give a good account of themselves against their table topping opponents.
Strong in the tackle Pinfleet took the game to Mill Lane United Yellows as they dominated the early possession. Despite this Mill Lane United withstood the early pressure with defenders Courtney McConville and Amy Radford showing up well. Starting slowly Mill Lane United took control and took the lead on 7 minutes when a flowing move involving midfielders Morgan Nagee and Emma Johnson released Grace Fletcher down the right and an inch perfect cross was well finished by ever improving striker Courtney Rushworth. The 2nd goal followed from the next move of the game when midfielder Tonya Storr raced 40yards leaving several defenders in her wake before passing to Emma Johnson on the edge of the area who dispatched the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal.
Credit to Pinfleet who dug deep and took the game to the Yellows, but as all teams have found this season when Mill Lane United play football they are hard to stop.With midfielder Tonya Storr outstanding arguably having her best ever game in a Mill Lane United shirt 5 more goals followed before half time, an own goal after a series of outstanding corners from Charlotte Holliday a 2nd of the game from Courtney Rushworth and one each from Grace Fletcher and Emma Johnson and the goal of the first half from Morgan Nagee after cutting inside on a 40yard run and finishing in style. So the first half saw Mill Lane United Yellows 7 nil in front against a team that battled for the full 40 minutes. The second half saw substitute Marie(misty)Russell the division 1 top goal scorer introduced determined to show she deserves a starting place in the team.
Mill Lane United started the second half in red hot form as they played some tremendous passing football with the whole team playing with confidence and scoring a further 9 quality goals many built from their own half after tremendous passing and support play. The highlights were two goals for outstanding midfielder Tonya Storr the second been a 20yard chip after another brilliant midfield run,further goals were scored by Morgan Nagee to give her a hatrick ,a second half hatrick from Marie (misty)Russell, a second goal of the game from hard-working striker Grace Fletcher and a well converted penalty from Charlotte Holliday after Fletcher was brought down in the area. Pinfleet battled hard and scored a consolation goal their efforts deserved with one of the last attacks of the game.
The final whistle blew with Mill Lane United Yellows looking forward to defending the trophy they won last year. Performance wise Pinfleet battled hard and for the first 20minutes gave the Yellows one of their hardest tests of the season with goal keeper Katie O ‘Rooke outstanding throughout with numerous outstanding saves. For Mill Lane United, a complete team performance with football of the highest standard with man of the match performances from midfielder Tonya Storr(picture attached) who covered every blade of grass in a tremendous display of skill and commitment and captain Emma Johnson, whose passing and vision created several goals.
Final Score : Mill Lane United 16 Pinefleet 1
