Bradford City 5-3 Lepton Highlanders (AET)
Chelsea Morton (3)
Charlotte Booth
Ruby Greaves (pen)
This years league cup final pitched runners-up City with league Champions Lepton
in what is always a tense game. After a hard fought league meeting in the previous month witnessing Lepton
squeeze a 3-3 draw against the 10 players of City, this game was always going to start at a tremendous pace and it did just
that. City started the brighter of the two and moved the ball well, creating a number of chances which saw forward Chelsea
Morton linking up incredibly well with the pace of her strike partner Charlotte Booth to trouble the Lepton goalkeeper.
City continued to press throughout the first half and got their reward when a goalmouth scramble allowed Charlotte
Booth to prod the ball over the line and send City into half time with a 1-0 lead, which in truth could have been a much bigger
scoreline. As ever, City made things hard for themselves at the start of the second half and after only 5 minutes saw them pegged
back after a good passing move from their opponents saw them carved open. However, their reaction was extremely
positive as they reverted back to their first half performance and went on the offensive, before being awarded a penalty for
a hand ball inside the area. Ruby Greaves confidently placed the ball on the spot and converted the penalty
to continue her excellent scoring record from midfield. 2 minutes later City found themselves with a 3-1 lead after good play from central
midfield pair Ruby Greaves and Simone Thornton allowed Charlotte Booth to play in top scorer Chelsea Morton to give City a
2-goal cushion with 20 minutes to play. Lepton went all-out attack from this point on and City found it difficult to get
out of their own half for large periods of time, reverting to panic football as the Lepton’s parents began to raise
their voices! The defensive line of Sophie Smith, Jodie Burton, Sophie Lee and Rachel Maloney were put
under a tremendous amount of pressure and did well, along with goalkeeper Abby Thackray in fine form. However,
in the last 10 minutes the pressure inevitably turned into goals and a quick double from Lepton saw the full time whistle
go at 3-3. With City’s players shook and visibly wound up due to the barracking from the Lepton followers ,
they were calmed down at the break and told to go out and play football again… which they did to great effect! Wingers
Shannon Moore and Katy Woodcock saw a lot more of the ball as City took control once more in midfield, before Katy went on
a superb run down the right hand side before sliding the ball into Chelsea for her 2nd. The
scores remained the same until 8 minutes from the end, where a replica move from Katy and Chelsea gave City a 2-goal cushion
that they would not surrender. The final whistle was blown and ensured that in their last ever game together, the City girls went home
with their second trophy of the season!!! Well done girls!!!!!!
4th April 2010
Normanton Athletic 4-6 Bradford City Chelsea Morton 3 Ruby Greaves 2 Simone Thornton
Bradford started their first
game since winning the County Cup in style, despite having only 10 players for the second game in succession.
With just over 5 minutes on the clock City had raced into a 2-0 lead with 2 extremely well-taken goals from lone-striker
Chelsea Morton following superb work on both wings from Shannon Moore and Katy Woodcock - the first of which was driven in
from an incredibly tight angle.
However, instead of building on their lead City became sloppy and complacent and allowed Normanton far too much space
in midfield. This space was soon exploited and turned into chance after chance in a superb 10 minute spell
for Normanton – resulting in 3 well taken goals which put City on the back foot.
Going behind seemed to give Bradford the kick they
needed and were soon level again following excellent work down the wings before Chelsea Morton pounced again to round off
an outstanding first half hat-trick. Normanton were visibly shook and City continued to press and got their
reward just before half time when good a good passing move in midfield was rounded off with a superb finish from Simone Thornton.
Slight re-adjustments at half
time gave Ruby Greaves an altered role and did an excellent job at protecting a back four team of Rachel Maloney, Sophie Lee,
Jodie Burton and Sophie Smith – all of whom looked incredibly comfortable in the second period. City
continued to look dangerous down the wings and carved chance after chance through Katy and Simone down the right hand side.
Despite this, it was Normanton who were next to score with a goal completely against the run of play – a 20 yard
chip which was just out of the reach of goalkeeper Abby Thackray.
Bradford
continued to dominate the play from this point and re-took the lead minutes later from a 25-yard free kick from Ruby Greaves
– a lead that they were not to give up again. Despite waves of pressure on the Normanton goal Bradford
were unable to extend their lead until 5 minutes from time when Ruby intercepted a poor goal kick before racing through to
apply a cool finish and give Bradford a well-deserved 2-goal cushion.
Despite making hard work of what should have been a straight forward game,
City held on for the win and now face a top of the table clash against Lepton Highlanders next week.
28th March 2010
County Cup Final
Bradford City 4-0 Batley
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| Coach and players enjoy the moment. |
City travelled to County headquarters for the 2010
County Cup final to play Batley - a team that had not lost for 3 years. With a County Cup squad of only 11, the team was dealt a huge blow in the previous week
when centre back Beth Tschuchno was injured and ruled out of the final, leaving the team with only 10 players. The first half began as a very tight contest with
both teams showing signs of nervousness, although neither were able to carve out a clear opening. That remained the
case until the 15th minute when lone striker Charlotte Booth did well to work her way into the box before being
fouled. Simone Thornton stepped up to take the penalty but saw her strike rise agonisingly over the bar. Simone
immediately set about to make amends and within a minute she won the ball back in the middle of the pitch, beat three
players before seeing her strike cannon back off the post, leaving Batley wondering if it was their lucky day. No further chances were created during the first
half and both teams returned to the changing rooms believing they were in the game. However, it was Bradford who returned
to the second half the stronger team, with Charlotte working extra hard up front to make up for the missing player and Chelsea
Morton battling in an unfamiliar central midfield role. Ruby Greaves and Shannon Moore also raised their game in the
second half as City began to control the midfield and got their reward after 55minutes when Charlotte Booth was played in
to finish and put City ahead. After
the first goal City never looked back and scored a second after superb work by full back Rachel Maloney, getting to the bye
line before crossing for Chelsea to finish. The third goal came from more good play down the left hand side, finishing
in an unfortunate own goal, before Simone made up for her penalty miss with a superb goal on the stroke of full time. Special praise must go to goalkeeper Abbie Thackray
for making a string of good saves from long range effort, and a superb display from defenders Rachel Maloney, Sophie Lee,
Jodie Burton and Katy Woodcock. City
now go through to the regional finals in Manchester on April 24th with their first game against Manchester City.
Team Abbie
Thackray, Katy Woodcock, Jodie
Burton, Sophie Lee, Rachel
Maloney, Ruby Greaves, Simone
Thornton, Chelsea Morton, Shannon
Moore, Charlotte Booth. u16's COUNTY CHAMPIONS!
County Cup Final Result
BRADFORD CITY u16's 4-0 BATLEY
u16's
 13th December 2009
City storm through to 3rd round of County Cup with impressive display
Seacroft Colts U16s 1
- 8 Bradford City U16s
Chelsea
Morton 4
Ruby Greaves 2
Jodie Burton 1
Charlotte Booth 1 After a wet spell with only one game in the last five fixtures the City girls
travelled to play an unknown Seacroft side for this second round cup tie. There was great news before the game of the return of injured defender Beth
Tschuochno which brought the squad back up to11 players.
The game started with both sides having
possession due to the fact that neither side was able to keep the ball long enough to show composure. However it only took
6 minutes for Ruby Greaves to fire City in front. City started to put their stamp on the game but continued to give the ball
away too cheaply. Chelsea
Morton added a second on the half hour mark which should have settled City down. Instead the midfield allowed the Seacroft
number 11 too much space and she fired home from long range. That was how it stayed until half time. 7
minutes after the break Chelsea Morton picked up her second goal of the game and midfield dynamo Jodie Burton added a 4th
and equalled her tally from last season! City settled the better of the two sides now and pressured Seacroft with some well
worked passages of play down the right from Shannon Moore and Katie Woodcock and forceful runs down the left from Rachel Maloney. Possibly the goal of season so far came on
the 70 minute mark when Emma Moorhouse (slim) won the ball in midfield and slotted a perfect pass to Ruby Greaves who hit
it first time from 35 yards to give the keeper no chance. At 5-1 City looked comfortable but still
needed Captain Sophie Lee to snuff out a dangerous Seacroft attack and a well timed sliding tackle in the box from Slim when
Seacroft were clean through. Keeper Abi Thackrey also tipped over a close range shot from a set play. Seacroft
started to tire as City moved the ball well to feet and it was not long before Chelsea Morton picked up her hatrick when she
reacted quickest to fire home from close range. Charlotte Booth who worked hard despite feeling off colour followed suit to
take the tally to 7. A fine City performance was topped off with an eighteen yard thunderbolt from Chelsea Morton who picked
up her 4th of the game and City’s 8th.
Newly appointed manager Lee said, “It
was great to see my new team play so well and progress to the 3rd round. The girls have tremendous potential and
I can’t wait to start and work with them.”
4th October 2009City u16's add another 3 points to their league tally. Bradford City u16's 2-0 Pool AFC Girls u16's
Katy Woodcock (16)
Charlotte Booth (37) All played well today with a fantastic job from Jodie Burton in midfield who
ran her socks off all game. Racheal Maloney played well on the wing. Defence was solid again with
Sophie Lee stopping everything goal bound. I do belive that
Sophie did actually miss place her pass which is a first this season- her doing something wrong. (Gary)
27th September 2009
Bradford City u16's 5-1 Bolton Woods
Simone Thornton (17,69)
Charlotte Booth (48,51,74)
All round good performance. And thank all the supporters, Another
solid performance from captain and centre back Sophie Lee.
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