On a perfect morning for football Mill Lane United Yellows and Malet Lambert U16 girls provided a feast of entertaining football featuring sides in the East Riding Girls Football League.
With the Leagues top scorer Marie Russell ruled out through, injury Mill Lane Yellows had to change their formation before this important game for both teams who were 2nd and 3rd in the table before the game. Malet knew they could not afford to let their free scoring opponents settle into the game and straight from the off the Yellows were chased and harried as their opponents tried to stop them playing their normal free flowing passing football.
First to every ball winning all the 50/50 challengers Malet Lambert, were certainly letting Mill Lane Yellows know they would not go down without a fight.
With Laura Stockdale defending strongly and Aimee Mathews controlling the midfield exchanges the Yellows were struggling to get into the game and Mathews nearly gave Malet the lead mid-way through the first half when a 25yard shot just went over the bar. Although on the back foot Mill Lane Yellows defended strongly with Jessica Pashby and Emily Holliday showing up well, in attack they showed glimpses of their attacking flair with midfielders Morgan Nagee and Charlotte Holliday coming close to breaking the deadlock before the half time whistle blew with the scorers level at 0 0.
The Yellows started the second half the better after a stern half time team talk and started to win the 50/50 challenges that had been lacking in the opening half. Pressure was created and a couple of excellent corners from Charlotte Holliday nearly saw a breakthrough, the first a powerful back post header from Marleigh Hornby and then a shot from Nagee just going wide.
Both teams were charging in looking for the breakthrough, and the game changed after a thunderous challenge between Malets Laura Stockdale, and Yellows Tonya Storr saw Storr carried from the field unable to finish the game.
The game restarted with the Yellows determined to win the game for the injured Storr, and the vital goal came after a through ball from Hornby found Charlotte Holliday the source of most of Mill Lane Yellows best attacking moves in the penalty area. Quickly getting the ball under control Hollidays right foot shot screamed into the back of the net to give the Yellows a vital 1 nil lead. With 15 minutes to go the Yellows were in control and should have made the game save when Nagee was bundled over in the penalty area by the Malet keeper, but the penalty was blasted over the bar for the Yellows by Charlotte Holliday.
Mill Lane played out the last10 minutes, and the final whistle blew with a one nil victory to Mill Lane Yellows as they closed the gap at the top of the table with several games in hand of the teams above them. 3 more points for the Yellows still remain unbeaten this season with 13 wins and one draw to date as they chase the two teams above them.
Performance wise for the Yellows Emily Holliday , Jessica Pashby were solid in defence ably assisted by goalkeeper Courtney Lees. Attacking wise Charlotte Holliday and Nagee caused problems and although the team was slightly off key they created more chances than their opponents to have won the game more comfortably than the final 1 nil score. Man of the match for the Yellows was given to Emily Holliday for some outstanding defence.
Full credit to Malet for a totally committed performance well led by Laura Stockdale and Aimee Mathews as, they too chase silverware this season.
