The First Team returned to league action this Sunday, hosting Stockport County at York Sport Stadium.
The opening twenty minutes had an end to end start, with Stockport forcing a save from Woollam, and York testing the opposition goalkeeper with chances from Astle and Bell. Stockport were the first to take their chance, despite some good build up play from York, and found the back of the net to gain a one goal advantage twenty-two minutes in. The opposition added another minutes later, and a third before half time. Going into half time three goals down, the Minster Belles had work to do.
Sixty minutes in, manager Dan Jackson made three substitutes, bringing Watt, Martin and Doody onto the field, looking for a way back into the game. Despite the increased pressure and chances from York, the team could not find a way back into the game. A more positive second half performance was not enough to progress in the table, but focus quickly shifts to Thursday evening, when the Minster Belles travel to Norton and Stockton for another league match up.
Manager Dan added “We are allowing teams momentum and can’t afford to do that in this league. Though we did have a change at half time, and drew the second half 0-0, we need to play for the whole 90 minutes. To the fans, stick with us; we need people to keep coming, keep turning up.” Our next home game is the second round of the FA Cup, November 23rd. Come and support the Minster Belles, and help us break our home attendance record!
York City Ladies Development Team welcomed Farsley FC this week. A really positive start, with a good intensity and tempo, helped York gain a one goal advantage only 5 minutes into the game, slotted away by Ruby Shannon.
The game continued in a similar fashion, with the development squad hitting the post, and dominating possession. Unfortunately, the team conceded when Farsley were able to capitalise on their first chance. Following this, the game took a sudden change half an hour in, when an unexpected red card was given to a York player after an equal collision. The momentum that the team had built up paid off when Ruby Shannon added another just before half time, 2-1 to York.
In the second half, the one less player meant that the team were overworked and fighting to stay in the game. After conceding 3, the team kept applying pressure and created some positive chances, but the game ended 2-4 to Farsley.
Manager Sam added “I want to start by saying how proud I am of the girls for the togetherness and effort levels shown. The opening 30 minutes of the game is the best football I’ve seen us play this season and it shows the standard of football we are capable of playing. It’s clear that the game changed after the sending off and how we had to manage it. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result over the line. The result is not what we wanted but we will learn from this and now we look ahead to next week’s cup game against Harrogate.”
