Report

the game started at a very high tempo and denham playing a 4 5 1 system were planning to play on the counter attack we knew they would be strong down the middle and it was spurs who were enjoying all the early play and it came as no shock when spurs left side midfield player got to the by line and crossed into the box some how it managed to get through a crowded penalty area and arrived at the far post where kirsten thompson finished onto the bottom right hand corner, still spurs poured forward and there neat passing and movement was giving denham plenty to think about and it came as no surprise when sophie cheadle made a save but emma kayser was first to react to the rebound and finished coolly into the net denham at this stage were really in trouble and finding it hard to get out of the own half and when sam pituck broke down the flank and crossed to the far post miranda hall finished well, still spurs poured forward and from 35 yards jess cheeseman scored. at half time we spoke of the need to stay switched on and keep pressing not to let our heads go down we knew this was going to be a long 45 minutes and the second half began a lot brighter for denham with danielle maton amy murphy sammy day finding them selves in some good positions but were stopped by some very strong defending from spurs, the 3 central midfield players of sian mccrindle charlotte stead & lauren cox were know coping a lot better and were also getting forward very well to support the forward but it was spurs who scored the next goal when a lovely through ball from jess cheeseman releases wendy martin free on goal and she coolly rounded sophie cheadle wendy martin was then put through for a second time but very unselfishly crossed for rosi webb to finish into an empty net. from the dug out manager terry maton sometimes you have to put your hands up and say that you have been beaten by a far better side they play there football 2 leagues above us and it was obvious to see we had a couple of things go against today one of there goals was scored from a foul throw and one was an obvious foul in the build up biu to be fair they were much better there fitness levels were stronger they were physically stronger and they played the game the right way. we also had a perfectly good goal disallowed from a lauren cox header from a corner sunday evening i dropped the girls a text to say that i was proud of the fact that they played for 90 minutes under extreme pressure and never once did there heads go down we know that we will not face opposition like this every week but we knocked out southampton & norwich who are both in the league above us so it shows me that we are on the right track heads up girls i would also like to thank all the officials & supporters of denham who travelled all the way to essex and cheered the girls until the end, next week we play borehamwood at home in the league