CupFinal Report

Tough tackling, and generally unsavoury tactics were in order as Bradworthy hammered Barnstaple Lionesses 4-0 in the Girls U15 Cup Final at Barnstaple Town F C on April 24th 2005.

The game couldn’t have got of to a worse start for the Lionesses, when in the first minute Jo Passmore was injured after a hard tackle.

After this the Bradworthy team, who looked generally bigger and stronger, used this physical advantage to lay into the more skilful Lionesses. At half-time several Barnstaple girls were a bit battered and bruised and one was really hurt.

Football is a contact sport and these sort of tactics are a acceptable part of the game you may think and that’s right, in a Premiership match between Arsenal and Manchester United, not in a girls U15 Cup Final.

On top of this at least four handballs, several fouls, and an uncountable amount of pushing went unnoticed. One spectator was heard to remark, after seeing a blatant handball that he thought he had come to watch a football match, not a basketball game.

Incredibly, with all this going on the Barnstaple Lionesses weren’t awarded a single free kick that I can remember in the first-half.

These match reports should reflect the football side of things, but to be honest in this game there wasn’t much about that to write.

Unbelievably there was no concern shown for these injuries from any one outside of the Barnstaple Lionesses coaches or supporters. Getting on with the match seemed to be the main priority, and the Lionesses started the second half without half the team on the pitch.

Because of the growing injury list, top scorer, Jacqui Coomber, was brought on. She had just recovered from an injury and the Lionesses hadn’t wanted to use her. But they were running out of players.

More players were injured in the second half and the whole thing was becoming fascicle. The Lionesses were being forced into making use of the rolling sub system to counteract the growing injury worries.

It wasn’t until about halfway through the second half that Barnstaple started to play, and to create chances. By this time they were becoming very tired and what with having to chase the game and push forward let in 2 more goals near the end. However, by then the game was over and those goals were academic.

A rather horrible tackle took place with only moments left. Bradworthy had already won the game, when Jacqui Coomber broke out on the left and was totally taken out in a tackle that at best can only be described as dangerous. What made this tackle particularly hard to stomach was the fact that it was so unnecessary. Bradworthy had already won the Cup.

No disciplinary action was taken against the player committing this foul. In fact some people amongst the crowd felt that seeing a fifteen year old girl chopped down and hurt was amusing. They actually applauded. Earlier in the game a Barnstaple Lionesses player was given a stern telling off for swearing after she’d been pushed in the back. It would seem that bad language is considered worse than dangerous tackling in some circles.

Another worrying incident took place at the end of the game. Barnstaple Lionesses asked an official to take a look at an injured player. The official refused. A disgusted spectator said that the Lionesses may have been asking for advice about an injury for all anyone knew, fair comment.

On the whole it must be stated that Bradworthy were the better team on the day and deserved their victory. It was just the manor in which it was achieved that rankled.

The Lionesses were not at their best. Three of the four conceded goals came from defensive errors. One of them a uncharacteristic mistake from Beth Dalton. A defensive muck up between Early and Thomas was responsible for the first. The other Early and Foubister contrieved to gift Bradworthy a goal out of nothing and one of them was just a good goal.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Lionesses on the day. There were some creditable performances. Leanne Pott played exceptionally well in the first half, and the little Barnstaple created came through her. Leisha Thomas was solid at the back and Abi Adams never gave up trying.

Of course the Lionesses wanted to win. But the least that they had expected was to have a fun time.

Beth Dalton (5) Ellie Early (5) Leisha Thomas (7) Leanne Pott (7) Leanne Robb (6) Abi Adams (7)