Mill Lane United Yellows travelled to Selby to play Brayton Belles knowing victory would put clear daylight between them and their rivals in the East Riding Gilrs Football League.
After a convincing victory against Brayton last week the Yellows were expecting a response from the home side and with two influential players missing Mill Lane were expecting a tough encounter. Straight from the start Mill Lane made their intentions clear and nearly scored from the first move of the game.
The Yellows continued to dominate with Morgan Nagee and Charlotte Holliday causing problems every time they had possession and the breakthrough came on 5 minutes. A quick one two between Nagee and Holliday got Holliday free in the area, although the initial shot was blocked by the keeper, but the rebound was smashed in to the back of the net by striker Marleigh Hornby to give Mill Lane a deserved 1-0 lead.
Straight from the kick off Nagee won the ball on half way, and an inch perfect ball found a rampaging Holliday charging down the right wing and a superb cross found Hornby on the far post for a simple tap in to make it two nil.
Mill Lane were in complete control and two more goals quickly followed the first been from the impressive right winger Holliday that made a run from the half way line to fire into the top corner after a fine ball out of defence by Jess Pashby and the 4th a cool finish from striker Marie (Misty) Russell after a fine through ball from Holliday.
The Yellows were on fire attacking at will and defensively sound with Lucy Crockett, Emily Holliday, Jess Pashby and impressive full back Courtney Rushworth ably assisted Courtney Lees between the sticks. Credit to Brayton who could have thrown in the towel, and they hit back with a fine strike that crept into the goal to make it 4 -1 to Mill Lane after 30 minutes.
A period of end to end football saw us to half time and the Yellows extended their lead with the final kick of the game when Russell got the ever improving Hornby free on the edge of the area before giving the keeper no chance to complete a first-half hat trick and Mill Lane a 5 1 half time lead.
The second half started at a frenetic pace as Brayton rolled the dice one last time in an attempt to get back into the game, and their efforts were rewarded with three quick fire goals in a 10-minute period were they started to dominate play to make the score 5-4 to the visitors.
It visibly shocked the Yellows were now scrambling to keep in the game as Brayton poured forward looking for the equaliser. Over the years, this Mill Lane team as risen to a challenge and this was no different as they showed why they have won the league title for five successive years.
Three goals conceded and totally second best the Yellows found a way back and scored six goals without reply 3 from Marie(Misty) Russell giving her 4 in the game 1 for Charlotte Holliday giving her a brace in the game and one each for Alice Johnson and Morgan Nagee. If the response was expected the quality of the goals was exceptional as Russell, Holiday and Nagee all found the net from outside the area with some quality shots showing everyone they mean business for 2014.
The final whistle went with the Yellows moving three points clear at the top of the table in the last fixture of 2013. Performance wise for Mill Lane another outstanding team effort(except for a 10minute lapse after half time) with Nagee and Holliday at the hub of all the teams best attacking moves, red hot finishing from the strike partnership of Hornby and Russell who have scored 34 goals between them to date this season.
Defensively, stand in captain Emily Holliday steadied the ship when the pressure was on in the second half in one of her best performances during the season ably assisted by Courtney Rushworth on her first start of the season at full back who played with confidence with some superb ball distribution.
Special mention to Amy Radford in a performance of great discipline in a superb 80-minute display.
