The girl’s teams had their toughest day as a group in some time as they travelled to Ron Dine Stadium to face a determined Camden Tigers in the GCL. The girls will have learned some tough lessons from these games which we feel will hold them in good stead moving forward.

14 GIRLS (LOST 1-2)

Camden welcomed the Flame to Ron Dine Oval in cool, windy conditions.

Right from the off, the Flame had some quickfire chances although it was Camden that struck first blood in the first 6 minutes. The girls didn’t drop their heads and some nice build up play lead to Sam Shallcross calmly finishing in the bottom right corner, rewarding their resilience almost immediately. After the dust settled in the early exchanges it was the Tigers that found themselves in the ascendancy as the game settled into a more predictable flow. The last action of the half was stand-in keeper Claudia Reilly keeping the scores level with a terrific reflex save.
HT: Camden 1-1 SC Flame
The second half brought tactical changes from both sides with the Flame looking to hold possession and the Tigers clearly looking to unsettle our rhythm. Both teams continued to have chances and the next goal looked to be crucial. The depleted South Coast squad cracked with 5 minutes to play and saw a deflected shot roll into the side netting. The girls really produced their best football upon conceding on both occasions and the last 5 minutes was a flurry of flame attacks. The equaliser never came despite the late pressure and we travelled home empty handed. The conditions were tough on the girls with only 10 fit players and no regular goalkeeper. A special mention to Amalie Kelly of the U12’s SAP and Abbey Haley of the U13’s GSAP who stepped up and never looked out of place.
FT: Camden 2-1 SC Flame

Player of the Week: Claudia Reilly
Claudia has been battling some injuries since football restarted and is beginning to find her feet again. Her technical ability is showing great improvements in training and she has begun to adjust to the Flame playing style. This was evident as she executed instructions given to her to nullify much of the Tigers second half attacking threat.
Her desire to help her teammates in a vulnerable position and volunteer to go in goals in the first half can also not be stated highly enough.

15 GIRLS (WON 1-0)

Undefeated South Coast Flame headed to Camden to face a Camden Tigers team fresh off a 11 nil win last week and full of confidence.

The first half ebbed and flowed with both teams having good spells of possession early on but neither creating any clear-cut opportunities. South Coast’s best chances coming from set pieces and some Lauren Brooks trickery in the penalty area whilst Camden looked to hit on the counter, however, both teams went into the half scoreless.

Camden Tigers came out of the half-time break the stronger and nearly caught South Coast out on two occasions in the opening minutes, but they were to be denied by some outstanding saves from the Flame goalkeeper.
South Coast looked lethargic as the half progressed and relied on some physical last-ditch defending at the back and the pace of Lauren Brooks up front to relieve the pressure momentarily and keep themselves in the game. Against the run of play, Caitlin Russell found Brooks in space down the right channel and after some quick footwork and a bit of luck, unleashed a powerful shot from a tight angle into the roof of the net to give Flame a one nil lead with ten minutes to go.

Two minutes later, Brooks struck the cross bar from a similar position before Camden had two more close chances before the whistle, but again Charlotte Palmisano in the South Coast goal was not to be beaten, throwing herself into harm’s way to deny the Tigers forward and giving South Coast Flame a one nil win and a valuable three points.

This game showed us that when we are not at our technical best and our opposition are confident and hungry, we need to rely on the mental basics of football; hard work, discipline, and resilience to get us over the line.

Player of the Week: Charlotte Palmisano

Charlotte has been working tirelessly on her distribution from her hands and her feet recently, whilst growing in confidence in her shot stopping ability. Against Camden Tigers, she was called upon on numerous occasions, making a great double save from a free kick in the dying minutes to keep her third clean sheet in a row.

17 GIRLS (LOST 1-3)

After a disrupted week at training due to mounting injuries, we arrived at Camden with only 10 fit players.
We started the game slowly, our passes weren’t sticking, we weren’t winning 50/50 balls, and our decision making wasn’t great. After a scrappy 10 minutes, we managed to take the lead via a Kailee Moore strike, but it wouldn’t last long.
With a stiff breeze at their backs, Camden peppered us with long balls which we didn’t cope with. Our high press had been taken out of the equation, and we were dithering on the ball in our defensive third. Within 5 minutes, we were down 2-1 as a result of not being able to effectively clear the ball from our penalty box.
To their credit, the girls responded positively from the outset in the second half and the chances came. Unfortunately for us, Camden goalkeeper made some great saves and we managed to hit the crossbar several times but could not get the goals we needed.
In the end, we conceded a third goal late after once again not dealing with the ball in the air.
A bit of a harsh lesson for the girls with respect to turning up with the right mindset. We’ll dust ourselves off though and come out firing this weekend.

Player of the Week: Kailee Moore

Player of the match was Kailee Moore, whose effort stood out from start to finish. On another day she gets 3 or 4 goals and turns the game around. Well done Kailee.