Town Ladies lose top of the table encounter
LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS 4TH XI 1
LOUGHBOROUGH TOWN LADIES 0
IT WAS heartbreak for Loughborough Town Ladies on Saturday as they slipped to a narrow defeat in this top of the table clash.
The game started promisingly for the opposition when a clash of sticks saw the ball bounce high and loop into the goal of Loughborough Town after only eight minutes.
Town continued to defend hard and absorb the pressure against wave after wave of attack from the Students.
Time was ticking away slowly, Town continued soaking up the pressure from the opposing team, but errors were creeping into their attacking play and they seemed to struggle to move the ball from stick to stick.
Half time came and not soon enough, the Student 4’s were clever in their tactical play and when Town took their first 16 of the game, the opposition changed their half pitch press to man to man marking making it hard for Town to get the ball out of their own defensive half.
Twenty minutes passed and another change to the Students set up as they went back to half pitch press, the defensive back line of Harriet Galpin, Claire Howard and Shana Featonby took a sigh of relief as they were finally able to play the ball out of their defensive half.
Some hard work from the midfield line, Annie Piper in particular clocking up the yards as she ran from side to side to try and create some space to receive the ball.
With seven minutes to go, a tactical change from the coaching staff for Town bought goalkeeper Harriet Galpin off the pitch while Claire Howard took up the position of kicking back to create an extra player and overload the Student 4’s.
Town found themselves camped in the defensive D of the Students edging closer and closer to an equaliser, after some clever work form the forward line, the ball was put on a foot, finally a glimmer of hope as Town won a short corner as the full time whistle blew. Shana Featonby injected the ball to the top of the D, the ball played straight in but unable to find a Town player the ball was cleared by the Students.
A heartbreaking day for Town as defeat saw Loughborough Students take over at the top of the table by one point.