G12’s Grand Final: August 30th – Hensley Athletic Sports Ground Pagewood 1 – 0 Dunbar

On a sunny morning at the hallowed pitch of Hensley Athletic Field, our Dunbar girls prepared to do battle with their arch rivals Pagewood Red in Dunbar Juniors first ever Girls Grand Final. With Coach Sarah watching the game via satellite from London, this match was a thriller in the making.

Our girls were fired up and ready for the battle after previously drawing with Pagewood with only 10 players. Dunbar had a clear game plan to dominate the match and play Football in the Red’s half and that they did!

From kick-off it was clear that Dunbar had their game faces on and pushed forward with countless attacks. The midfielders were combining beautifully displaying a fine passing game between Sidonie, Erika, Eliza, Chloe, Sienna, Deedee and pushing balls through to Millie putting pressure on a worried Reds defence.

Dunbar’s total domination of possession was rewarded with several corners. Lucy stepped up to take a brilliant corner which landed right in the 6 yard box and after a flurried scramble at the goal mouth by Erika, Eliza and Millie, the girls just failed to tip the ball in which proved to be a pivotal moment in the game.

The girls had several near misses on goal in the first half and were clearly the better team overall with most chances to open the scoring.
A special mention to brave Esme who was heroic in goals reading the play superbly, punting the ball far up-field each time and saving shot after shot by putting her body on the line in “Hope Solo” fashion.

Our Dunbar defence was rock solid at the back, well drilled and perfectly positioned with Vicky and Issey marking the Reds best player out of the game and Bella, Georgia, Edie and Lara creating a brick wall causing the Red’s to be frustrated with a 0:0 score-line at half time.

The Reds came out fighting in the second half but our girls had their measure by tightening up their marking and were winning the majority of their 50/50 battles each time with solid challenges and brilliant clearances from the back.

Both teams had their chances in the second half with some spectacular Dunbar runs down the wing and constant through balls. Bella thwarted a clear chance for the Reds with well-timed goal saving tackle and Issey was a rock in the back with superb composure calmly clearing danger from her goals every time. This match was shaping up to be an epic game and a deserved Grand Finale.

Just when it was looking like we would certainly go into extra time with 5 minutes of regular time left, the Reds scored a lucky goal from a tricky bounce which put them ahead 1:0. Our girls then fought gallantly to level the scores and with 1 minute to go Erika put Millie through who beat the defender only to be held back by the arm in the penalty box which was unfortunately missed by the referee.

Sometimes in sport you need luck on the day and our girls were brilliant but unlucky.

Overall, this was an outstanding first season for our girls in the ESFA competition. From 17 games played, our girls scored 35 goals from 9 different goal scorers and only conceded 8 goals with 10 clean sheets. This shows that our girls were both offensively and defensively strong, consistent and that everyone contributed to the team.

The girls should hold their heads up high and be proud of an excellent overall season.