Brent U11 Girls 0-4 Barking & Dagenham
Saturday’s game in Regent’s Park was undoubtedly the toughest opposition for the Brent Under-11s this season so far. They raised their game against the impressive Barking & Dagenham District team, who have made the last sixteen in the English Schools competition, but ultimately it ended in a 4-0 defeat for the home side.
Despite strong defence from the back three, Myla, Minnie and Siena, who all took a spell in goal, the visitors took the lead with two first half goals, one from Barking & Dagenham’s impressive striker (a current West Ham academy player). Brent quickly rallied, with a number of probing attacks in the opposition half and only to be stopped by the equally impressive B&D goalie.
It was a physical game against a large opposition, with Nancy Wales bravely weathering two balls to the face in quick succession but despite this, she was relentless in her desire to drive forward with the ball and continually tested the defence of B&D. She was the outstanding player on the pitch across both teams, and was desperately unlucky not to come away with a goal
A succession of counter attacks from Charlotte and Nancy towards the end of the half ultimately failed to yield a goal, and the half ended 2-0.
The pace never let up in the second half, with Charlotte and Evie fighting hard in midfield. Brent came close a number of times to scoring with a succession of goal-line clearences, Edie and Deena always looking for opportunities to breach the oppositions defence. Despite this, the opposition managed two more goals, to bring the final score to 4-0.
Coach Andrew Piller “you learn more from a defeat than from win, and this was undoubtably true – we now have a much better understanding on where we are as a team, and the competitive and technical levels we need to improve on and achieve.”
Brent Under 14 girls put continued to show improvement but despite a commendable performance went down against title chasing Ickenham Panthers 5-0 at home at Capital City.