17 Mar 2007: Lisbon St Antonys 3-2 Stockport County (HT 0-2)

A strange match …. With a gale-force wind blowing from one goal to the other, Stockport won the toss and decided to play with the wind in the first half so that they could use it with fresh legs. Lisbon’s play really showed that they hadn’t had a competitive match for 6 weeks – though they were fit and skilful on the ball, they seemed a little slow and sluggish off the ball. However, it was the wind which was the crucial factor in the first half – almost every high goal kick and clearance by Lisbon from the back was caught by the wind and stopped in its tracks. Eventually Lisbon cottoned on and started keeping the ball close to the ground but it is difficult to attack when every kick from the opposition is carried by the wind well into your half and all your passes are severely affected. The pitch didn’t help either as ground passes bobbled a lot – passes back to the goalie were scary because of the uneven pitch and Ria had to really concentrate to clear balls.

Our defence coped well with most Stockport attacks, and midfield helped out when needed so it looked like we would hold out for 0-0 in the first half but Stockport had a fast good no.8 (tricky as well, she kept swapping sides to keep trying out our full defence) and she got away down the wing. Fred came in to help but the no.8 cut in and Fred’s tackle (which did get the ball) became a tackle from behind and the extremely fair referee gave a penalty. Ria got her hand to the ball but the penalty had been hit with too much power and she couldn’t deflect it out of goal, 0-1 After this, Lisbon really concentrated and Stockport’s attacks were snuffed out early and we had quite a few attacks of our own. We were a bit unlucky not to score but the length of passes was difficult to judge and their goalie was quick to get to any through balls. The spectators had settled for being 0-1 down in the first half when another break down the right wing from Stockport was helped by a tardy forward not coming back fast enough and Stockport scored a well taken goal from an angle, just getting it past Ria who had come out fast, 0-2.

Well, I thought that in the second half we’d easily score a hatful – with Fred, Hanifa and Whit’s power and accuracy on goal, and our forwards getting into the box to snatch any chances – but it turned out harder than I expected. Stockport defended well and it got crowded in Stockport’s half near the centre, we weren’t using our wings at first, and most passes forward were turned by the strong wind almost to passes to their goalie. As soon as we started passing the ball out to Whitby on the wing, Stockport got more spread and our midfield, particularly Hanifa, got more room to take the ball into dangerous positions. Hanifa twisted and turned past lots of Stockport players and also made great passes. Fred stayed back a bit further for most of the game to give the defence some protection and did very well. Eventually our pressure told and Jess(??) scored a great goal, 1-2. We were on our way. Stockport carried on defending well in the centre, doubling up on Hanifa when needed but eventually she passed the ball to the wing again, Whit passed to Fred who tried a shot which their goalie saved and pushed out, but Lucy reacted faster than their defenders and whacked in a goal, 2-2. Whitby was torturing Stockport on the wing by now and soon she had the ball again in the box and tried to whip in a cross – the defender tried to block it and her upraised arm deflected the ball out of play. Penalty! Fred stepped up and coolly slid the ball right into the corner on the right – the goalie wouldn’t have got it even if she had guessed right. 3-2 now and Stockport threw everything forward – they had nothing to lose as they were already through to the Cup final but if they won, we may be caught by Stalybridge. And we know who they’d prefer to play in the final! We still had a few more chances but the Stockport goalie got the ball and, at the other end, they overloaded us a couple of times as midfield didn’t get back to help defence fast enough. However, Ria was brilliant in goal and stopped a couple of one-on-ones! The very fair referee finally blew the final whistle after another Stockport attack petered out.

Overall, I thought Lisbon merited the win but I think we can do a lot better when we’re match fit and more awake. It’s a shame that we lost one of our ‘dynamo’ players during the week – Robyn has broken her big toe – but we did well today without her. Our defence played excellently – Laura especially.

Kamal

The team stats and a more reasoned viewpoint will be added later by a coach!

Match report (17/03/07) League cup

Today we played Stockport in our final league cup game of the season, a draw was all we needed, but as all the team and supporters know Lisbon always play to win. Stockport won the coin toss and decided to play with the wind behind them, and this was a major factor in both half’s of the game, affecting the goalie kicks

Stockport started well using the long keeper kicks to their advantage, and with 22 minutes played, a goalie kick was chased down by the Stockport striker only for Fred to go down in the box and take the striker with her (PENALTY). Ria almost saved the penalty but Stockport scored and Lisbon went 1-0 down, on 34 minutes Stockport got their second goal, again from a long keeper kick and Lisbon went into the break 2-0 down.

With the wind now behind us, and three minutes played in the second half, Hanifa (who was closed down every time she touched the ball) managed to set up Jess to make the score Lisbon 1 Stockport 2. Lisbon totally dominated the second half and Stockport were forced to defend for long periods of the game, and with 59 minutes played a free kick just outside the penalty area was perfectly struck by Fred, and parried by the keeper. Lucy followed the free kick into the box and calmly scored from the rebound. 2-2.

Lisbon continued to push forward an chance after chance was blocked by the strong Stockport defence. Stockport then hit Lisbon on the counter attack, but he ball was quickly blocked and taken by Ria, the keeper then took a quick goal kick which Jess chased down and shot on goal, only for the Stockport defender to handball (PENALTY). Whitby and Fred both volunteered to take the penalty ( no pressure), but the coach’s decided it was time for the captain to lead her team, Fred then took a perfect penalty which went right in the corner to give the keeper no chance. Lisbon 3 Stockport 2.

During our half time talk the team were not happy, believing that the game was lost, but the coach’s were in no doubt that the game was there for the taking. During both half’s of today’s game Lisbon were by far the better team, and only the strong Stockport defence (10 of them), stopped Lisbon scoring a hatful of goals, the message is

(ALWAYS BELIEVE & NEVER GIVE UP)

Special mention to Jess, Beth, Ria, & Fred (penalty & free kick) for excellent performances.
Joely girl of match, Stockport’s choice
Best player on pitch (by a mile) Laura

CONGRATULATIONS DAVE, PAT AND CLAIRE.