First touch and the girls were straight in , the ball never left the oppositions half for the first 5 minutes and it clearly paid off as the first goal was scored with an excellent finish from Sara . The domination of the ball continued and with precise passing and good communication the 2nd goal did’nt take long to follow . With the girls in full flow and having complete control and an excellent pass into Lauren it looked like her 2nd goal was to soon follow but unfortunatley the goalie intercepted but dropped it and aloud Shannon to tap it in and score , it did’nt take too long for Shannon to find the back of the net again .

The girls were in full flow and with a few position changes and Rosie dropping forward it did’nt take her long to have a superb pass in from Lauren and  Rosie soon found her name on the score sheet . With  just 3 minutes to go till first half whistle Lauren found the back of the net and finished first half 0-6 .

Second half was off to a flying start and Nikki managed to find the back of the net after just a few minutes of play . The opposition was making the girls work and did test our defence on a number of occassions and Brodie had to make sure that she got the ball as and when required . The 8th goal came from an excellent pass from Brodie to Rosie and Rosie managing to deliver an excellent finish . With Nikki already on the score sheet she soon found herself scoring again and then not too long after that  with a short corner kick from Rosie to Sara and Sara to Nikki she turned and scored giving her a hatrick .

Another goal from Lauren followed and she also was down with a hatrick . With not long to go till final whistle Kelly wanted to put all her had work in to a well deserved goal and get her name on the scoring sheet . She did this after a lovely knock in and a perfect finish into back of the net . Shannon put a lovely finish to the game after a good corner kick from Lauren into the box and Shannon putting a lovely one touch finish into the net .

Final score was well deserved 0-13 . the girls all worked well together and the passing was precise and controlled . The communication was good and even though  Kirsty did’nt have much to do in goal she made sure that she controlled the defence well . On this occassion because of the efforts of all the girls the whole team was rewarded Person of the Match .

Goal Scorers : Sara (1) , Kelly (1) , Rosie (2) , Nikki (3) , Lauren (3) , Shannon (3)

Goalscorers:

Laura Avery (1), Laura Gray (5), Ashleigh Westwood (1), Aaliyah Hay (3), Jordan O’Coy (2), Billie Haynes (1), Courtney Whitehouse (1)

Goalscorers: Jemma Connor-Iommi 2, Becky Hall, Jordan Timmins-Rae, Jess Lippiatt, Hayley Phillipowsky, OG.

This was the eagerly awaited “Clash of the Titans” in the Birmingham County Cup semi final and it lived up to its expectations with 2 closely matched teams putting on a committed show in an ultimately closely fought game.

Coventry opened the scoring early in the game with a ball over the top that caught the Albion defence cold and their forward went onto the slot the ball under the advancing Hannah Tromans.

Albion went in search of the equaliser and missed a golden opportunity before Emma Morgan hit a low drive into the goalkeeper’s bottom right from her position on the left wing. It may have taken a slight deflection but it brought the scores level at 1 – 1.

Albion then spurned another golden opportunity to take the lead before half time but inevitably as these things tend to happen, Coventry created a virtual repeat of their opening goal and went into the break at 2 – 1 up.

With the slope in Albion’s favour for the second half hopes were in the ascendency that Albion would go on to equalise quickly and then go onto win. Events took a turn for the worse however, when Coventry capitalised on a loose ball from a  corner and managed to poke the ball home to make it 3 – 1 to the hosts with about 30 minutes to go.

Rather than let their heads drop, the Albion girls took the game to Coventry and following a corner Natalie Carless nodded home from close in to narrow the gap to 3 -2.

Now the pressure was really on from an Albion team that had got their second wind and were determined to grab an equaliser and get themselves back on level terms. A period of continued pressure on the Coventry goal resulted in an Albion corner which Raegan Roper took from the left and promptly curled it straight into the net for the deserved leveller. Now it was definitely Game On !!

In a frantic last 5 minutes, the winner came, but unfortunately from the Sky Blues who went onto to win the match, despite Albion’s best attempts to land another equaliser and force the game into extra time, and a place in the final.

A highly entertaining game for the neutral, but very frustating and masssively disappointing for the Albion girls.

As the saying goes, at least it enables the girls to concentrate on the League and League Cup, but you can’t help feeling that this was one that got away

With the midweek snowfall there was a doubt that this game would go ahead, but fortunately it did, albeit on a really heavy pitch,  giving the girls an immediate opportunity to put last week’s disappointment behind them.

The girls started brightly and it was no surprise to see Jade Sinclair’s pace take her away from the Wednesfield defence enabling her to slot the ball into the corner within the first 5 minutes.

It was pretty well one way traffic for the rest of the first half and it wasn’t too long before Raegan Roper picked her spot and slotted home a sublime finish to make it 2 – 0 which in no way flattered the Albion girls at the break.

The second half was a more even affair with Wednesfield becoming more involved in the game but the defence coped comfortably with whatever was thrown at them. The midfield and forward line created more scoring opportunities for themselves, but in spite of peppering the Wednesfield goal, including Jade hitting the post, they couldn’t add to the score and the game ended with a 2 – o victory to Albion

Certainly, the heavy pitch, which got heavier as the game went on, restricted the girls in playing their normal high tempo passing game, but after last week, the return to winning ways was most welcome.

Goalscorers: Hayley Phillipowsky 2, Jess Lippiatt.

Tonights game has been switched to:

Sandwell Academy (grass pitch), Halfords Lane, West Bromwich B71 4LG

KO 7.45

KO – 7.30pm

at

Studley FC, The Beehive, Abbeyfields Drive, Studley, Warwickshire B80 7BE

Game given to us, so no goalscorer.

Goalscorers: Gabbi Reid, Sophie Powell.