Retford U13’s girls tournament 31/8/2024
Saturdays tournament marked the last ever fixtures for the U13’s girls 🥹. Unfortunately the Doncaster league has ceased to continue for the U13’s age group with all the teams moving over to the Sheffield league. Due to the APR U13’s now having a number of duel registered players from the U12’s girls team it was logistically impossible to follow suit and move over to Sheffield.
Due to a number of players being away on holiday and a late emergency we turned up with 10 players for an 11 a side tournament. With fixtures coming thick and fast it was no mean feat against some competitive teams, especially with no recognised forward players.
Despite this numerical and tactical disadvantage Mike and Andy were very proud that in every game the girls gave it their best shot and each player took it in turns to shine.
Game 1 Bentley - Charlotte at left centre back making some important blocks and calm distribution.
Game 2 Lindum - Lily showed some direct wing play and Eva C barging players off the ball nearly causing a spectator to do a pitch invasion.
Game 3 Rossington - Mel carrying the ball from centre half and finding positive passes.
Game 4 Charnock - Georgia playing some nice through balls and Bobbi Marie driving forward.
Game 5 Worksop - Ava and Evie showing great resilience to carry on battling despite carrying a few niggles.
Europa cup final vs Lindum - Each and every player gave a standout performance. I’ve not seen such recovery powers since Tyson Fury got off the canvas against Deontay Wilder. As a team we knocked on the door time and time again but we couldn’t put it in the onion bag.
In the end it came down to the dreaded penalties and somehow APR U13’s prevailed with Millie saving 4 spot kicks. This was complimented by Evie, Ava, Lily and Rowena scoring for the blues.
It was particularly pleasing seeing Millie in goal, an original gangster captaining the team for the last time. Also Rowena the last new signing, not just stepping up but jogging up to smash in the winning penalty who was brand new to playing football, only 4 months ago.
The best of luck to all the girls leaving for pastures new and thanks for the memories from Andy and Mike x
#WeareAPR ⚪🔵⚪🔵⚪
#shecanplay