We travelled to Brackley on an afternoon perfect for football, to play in the main Brackley Town stadium on a pitch that looked immaculate.
Both teams started brightly but after 4 minutes a good move down their right saw Georgie feed Steph, Steph took a touch then slid a super ball across the area where Sophie T was on hand to finish calmly past the Brackley keeper. 1-0 Moulton and yes, a Steph assist!
After 10 minutes some lovely passing football by Brackley saw them release number 7, she was ahead of the Moulton defence, but she took her shot early and Harriet saved with her feet. Callie cleared at the expense of a corner. A good corner from the left eluded everyone but touched a defender and went for a corner on the right. Brackley had the wind in the first half and Moulton defenders were having problems getting distance with their clearances. The corner caused a scrimmage in the box then it fell to an attacker who hit past the post. After 16 minutes another Brackley break saw their number 9 try a shot that Harriet again stopped with her feet conceding another corner. On 23 minutes there was a fast Moulton break involving Sophie T and Steph inter passing and it appeared that the pass had pushed Steph wide, but she took a step and hit a good firm shot into the far corner for 2-0 .
5 minutes later another fast break by Brackley saw Hayley attempt to shield the ball back to Harriet but in the end played it away for a corner. On 31 minutes a nice passing move from Brackley created a chance but the shot was tamely past the post. Two minutes later, an error from Moulton’s defence put in Brackley’s number 8 who was on her own and she calmly passed the ball into the corner of the net for 2-1. This unsettled the Moulton team briefly and Brackley had their tails up. However Moulton countered and despite Morgan being floored off the ball, in anger she regained her footing and hit the ball first time from 25 yards and the ball crash down off the underside of the crossbar. Just a few minutes later and just on half time, Moulton charged down an attempted clearance and Morgan was on to it like a shot and did what she does best and passed it past the keeper into the net for 3-1 Moulton at half time.
The Brackley players came out for the 2nd half fired up, think they had been fed raw meat. They appeared determined to turn the match around whatever tactics it took. After barely 2 minutes after the restart some delightful passing from the Brackley players saw them advance down the pitch through a Moulton team that were still having their half time break. A pass found number 8 and with the keeper advanced off her line to the edge of the box, she calmly hammered a shot into the net for 3-2 Moulton. Moulton had the wind at their backs in the 2nd half but didn’t use it by taking shots from around the penalty area. Moulton did counter attack and forced a corner that came to nowt. Brackley were awarded a free kick some 35 yards out from goal but this came to nothing. As the half progressed Brackley players became more and more aggressive with their tackling but the referee seemed more interested in penalising petty things which bemused the crowd and players like. On 65 minutes Sophie T was flattened off the ball and yet when Sophie G clattered into a Brackley player she was immediately booked. Not to be outdone Brackley 15 carried on kicking whatever moved. If it didn’t move it was kicked until it did and then kicked again. The referee eventually saw another agricultural tackle and booked her, suppose late is better than never. Perhaps we could get Fi back for the return?
Moulton then attacked through Sophie T and Morgan but they failed to get in a decent shot to trouble the keeper. On 84 minutes with the Moulton midfield and defence all at sea Brackley number 9, who only came to life in the middle of the second half, moved on to the ball and from all of almost 35 yards hit a hard high shot at goal that went over the Moulton keeper and into goal for the equaliser 3-3. After 88 minutes Brackley 9 tried her luck again from 25 yards but the shot was wide of goal. The game fizzled out and a draw was possibly what Brackley deserve. But for a superb block by Wiki they could have possibly won it late on, although giving away a 3-1 lead is poor, not helped by too many changes of personell.
Harriet kept us in the game early on, defence was generally solid, Sophie G again excelled in midfield with Kim looking good when she came on in the second half. Georgie, Wiki and Sophie T all worked hard, Morgan chased and harried but lacked good service. Jade returned from injury and tried really hard but needs fitness levels back to how it was before the injury. Jade W, Jess and Shannon all worked hard when they came on. Players of the match Wiki Pilarcyk and Kim Lynch. Next match away at NNUtd who play at Raunds, as long as we have enough players recovered from their knocks and amazing bruises following the Brackley game.