Chelmsford City 3 Writtle Minors 2

Sunday 12^th October 2008, Marconi Leisure, West Hanningfield Road. Kick Off 1.30pm. Essex County Girls League Under 11 Eastern Division.

  In glorious sunshine, City secured the points in a hard fought local derby to strengthen top spot and inflict a first defeat on tone of their title rivals.

  Both teams started brightly but Charlotte Barnard opened the scoring for Chelmsford after some good individual skill finding her way into the box before rifling a shot into the net. Writtle bounced back to draw level after some good attacking play which saw the ball tucked into the bottom corner of the net.

  Writtle were awarded a penalty after a forward went down in the box but fortunately for City, the penalty kick was put wide of the post.

  This served as a wake up call Chelmsford who stepped up a gear to produce a sustained period of good attacking football and were rewarded when Sophie Vale scored to make it 2-1.The half drew to a close with both teams producing end to end attacking football.

  Writtle took the game to City for periods of the second half Chelmsford held firm with some great team defensive work to hold on to their lead. City were relying on the quick counter attack and were rewarded for their hard work when Barnard went on a great run to get round her marker before unselfishly squaring to Vale who coolly slotted the ball away to make it 3-1.

  Writtle, to ntheir credit, never gave up and continued to attack but came up against a formidable opponent in Anna Copping, making her debut for City in goal, who made some tremendous saves to keep Chelmsford’s lead in tact.

Writtle eventually found their way past to net a last minute goal.

  Overall, it was a great game of football played by both teams with a well deserved win for Chelmsford.

Chelmsford City: Anna Copping, Gaby Hill, Melanie Woodward, Aimee Turner, Maddie Twaite, Melissa Burton, Charlotte Barnard, Ashton Payne and Sophie Vale.

Goalscorers: Sophie Vale 2 and Charlotte Barnard 1

City Player of the Match: Anna Copping

Referee: Roger Barnard (Chelmsford)