Kelburne Ladies' 1s Lose to Grove Menziehill

On Sunday 17.11.19 in the Scottish Cup, Kelburne hosted Grove Menziehill, a team sitting in 3rd position in Scotland’s premier league. In sunny, icy conditions it was touch and go to see if the pitch would be playable. Nevertheless creative warming up by both sides ensured corners of pitches defrosted in time. The young Paisley team were dazzled during the opening 10 minutes as the experienced Dundee outfit, boasting 3 current internationalists and a former GB player dominated possession. Impressively Frances Strain and D’Arcey Campbell worked doggedly in defence, at times putting themselves on the line, to prevent Grove creating scoring opportunities. While Holly Hendry and Kerri McGinnity closed down their opponents in midfield relentlessly. Unfortunately an opener came in the 21st min when Grove found a foot in the circle, and expecting a corner the Kelburne defence didn’t contest when advantage was played and the ball was unopposed placed by Emily Irving’s left foot. The wind came out of Kelburne’s sails a bit after this, lack of concentrating and within ten mins Grove had tripled their tally to ensure they went into half time with a comfortable 3-0 lead. The 2nd half started very positively for Kelburne with forwards Jessica McKenzie and Dalia Stewart remaining higher up the pitch and pressing enthusiastically. Kelburne created a lovely attack down the left hand side when a transitioned ball from Rachael Ewing-Day was excellently waited into the corner for Hendry to slip onto before being fouled. The free hit found Ewing-Day who turned past her defender and into the circle, where her low reverse unfortunately hit the outside of the goal. Moments later however relentless Grove broke into the circle to claim another corner. Irving steadfastly dealt with the initial strike nevertheless the rebound found their creative striker who pulled out a magnificent reverse lob to beat Irving. Similarly a few minutes later this time from a Morven McEwan ball down the left, Abbie Irvine found herself alone in attack and did splendidly to claim a corner with some fast stick work in the circle. Strains strike hit the keeper however and Grove again broke with electric pace. Another individual masterpiece was unleashed in their direction when the Grove striker again reversed a top corner first time strike into the roof of the net. Then their final goal came in the final few minutes when Kelburne’s high press was countered and Irving was left exposed in the circle in a 2v1 situation. The game finished 6-0 to the travelling Dundee side, with the score line not reflecting the performance of the young Paisley outfit whose tenacity to attack and keep driving forward left them at risk from Grove’s pace of counter attack. Matched against one of the countries best sides the young team looked more than capable of creating and competing, they just need to start finishing. Most Valuable Player was voted as D’Arcey Campbell, the young centre back who defended calmly and passed with lightening speed.