Burton Joyce vs Jets — League Cup, First Fixture

This morning, we played Burton Joyce in the first League Cup fixture. The morning mist hung in the air when we arrived, and it never disappeared, which made for an interesting challenge — for both teams.

A Slow Start

When the game started, Burton Joyce started quickly and, within 3 minutes, they had broken down our left and crossed into the box, where unfortunately we didn’t react fast enough before they slotted the ball past Hollie. That seemed to wake us up, and we started to try and wrestle some possession in midfield through Naomi, Estee and Jessie, who stepped in from right back. But it wasn’t enough, as we weren’t able to sustain any real pressure or possession. Before we knew it, Burton Joyce had broken down our left again and, from a cross, came a shot, beating Hollie to make it 2-0.

Fighting Back

This seemed to wake us even more, and we started to put in more challenges and achieve control, with some nice link up play between Lillyana and Freya on the left, and Naomi and Alice on the right. Daphnie and Estee were working together in the middle to harry and pester their midfield, both looking to find passes out to play wide. All that hard work paid off when a handball on our right, just inside their half, allowed Lillyana to step up and send a free kick towards the Burton Joyce goal — it bounced just in front of their keeper and looped over her head into the goal.

We got an equaliser not long after, when good play on our left put Ella into space, and she crossed perfectly to an on-running Charliee, who was supported by Cheska, to run on to the keeper and calmly score.

We managed to see out the rest of the half without really having too much to worry about, as Georgie, Katie and Jessie managed to keep the Burton Joyce attack at arm’s length, and when it did get past them, Hollie was a real calm head behind them.

A Better Second Half

The second half was slightly more in our favour. We managed to contain the threat of their right wing more, through Freya and then Lillyana, playing in the left back role. Jessie, playing in a central defence role, put in some great challenges to help keep us on the front foot. A number of times, Alice was able to get down our right and cross the ball, but we just couldn’t quite convert those into a winning goal.

Decided on Penalties

The game finished 2-2 at full time but, as it was a Cup game, we had penalties to decide the winner. Charliee and Ella dispatched their penalties calmly, but unfortunately Jessie’s was saved and Lillyana’s went just wide. Whilst Hollie went the right way for all their penalties, she was unable to stop them. Therefore, today, we unfortunately lost the game 4-2 on penalties — but an amazing effort and performance from all the Jets.