Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Durhamfootman wrote:couple of sitters missed by Hemp. the second half chance ended up being a good save, but the first half chance where she hit the post was just a plain old open goal

The second one was straight at her. Just needed to place it but went for power.

England still haven't found a replacement for Ellen White, even the somewhat diminished Ellen White from the Euro's winning side. They haven't found a target number 9. Russo isn't it because she can't hold the ball up, Hemp isn't it and is wasted playing a central role, Daly doesn't seem to have persuaded Sarina that she's it and England was never given a chance to even try. Who else is there?

It needs to be fixed, because it's the most glaring lack in attack

Defence is a different matter altogether. That's puzzled me for the entire year. we played 3 CB's in the first match v NL and got murdered in the first half, so switched to a back 4 in the second half and were much better (irrespective of the stupid goals we handed them on a plate). Then in the second match we stuck with a back 4, got murdered in the first half, had to switch to 3 CB's and came from behind to win the game. I get the feeling that the next time we play them we'll start with 3 CB's and get murdered again. Defensively England are all over the place and have been since winning the Euro's

I said to my wife tonight, with my tongue in my cheek 'bring back Ellen White'

well, for most of her international career, if she was put through one on one she'd score 9 times out of 10, which just isn't an option any more, it's a goal scoring method no longer available to England. Even when she wasn't scoring goals in that final tournament, she could hold the ball until support arrived, now teams have all the time in the world to get players back, because that threat just isn't there, leaving England to have to play the patient moving the ball from side to side and front to back, because there's no-one good enough to dominate the middle and pull defenders away from where they want to be

Yeah White was very good at doing the basics well. Beth England can hold the ball up but isn't very mobile.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67641943

FA chair has her say about Rubiales

I'd not heard anything about Laura Coombs and Lucy Bronze before

I watched the Newcastle ladies play Stoke City in the cup last week on a live stream and watched them thump in 5 goals in the second half. It was quite an entertaining game, so I watched their home fixture against Fylde in the National League Northern Premier league this afternoon on the same channel.

Not often you see an 11-3 scoreline. They were 5-0 up in less than half an hour (like watching Spurs at SJP last season)

Newcastle women were promoted last season, are sitting top of the northern league by a distance and if they stay there they'll get a promotion play off against the southern winners for a place in the women's championship next season. Now regularly getting gates of nearly a thousand at home games. Could be a team to watch in the next few years. Mostly comprising former Sunderland, Durham and MIddlesbrough players alongside several home grown players

They have been personally championed by Amanda Staveley, so it'll be interesting to see whether the financial ambition for the women will match that of the men should they get into that second tier next year.

It's a big weekend for Newcastle women. Semi final of the Women's National League cup at SJP, which is important enough for them, but it's against Portsmouth. Newcastle and Portsmouth are the runaway leaders of the North and South divisions of the third tier in women's football and assuming it remains that way until the end of the season they will have to play each other for the right to be promoted into the Women's Championship. This semi final will be an opportunity to compare the two teams

Newcastle women march to the final of the FA national league cup, beating Portsmouth 2-1 at SJP. I watched the game online and Newcastle were worthy winners. They controlled the game for long periods, caused Portsmouth no end of problems from set pieces, forced some good saves from the keeper, hit the bar 3 times in the second half and found the winner in the 90th minute. The ref then went on to play 11 of 7 minutes of time added on, but they held on fairly comfortably

On the whole it was a good workout ahead of what is likely to be a crucial meeting at the end of the season with promotion to the women's championship on the line. With both dominating their respective leagues and no opportunity to compare them until now, it was reassuring for me to see Newcastle looking like the better side today.

Looked like a good sized crowd too. I think it's important for their development as a team to continue to play these fixtures at SJP, their 4th since the takeover

England have beaten Italy 5-1 tonight

Lionesses find themselves drawn in a group of death for the Euro's qualifying alongside France and Sweden

Germany, Spain and NL look to have a pretty easy ride as top seeds in each of the other three 'A' groups

top 2 qualify for the finals automatically. 3rd and 4th place go into the play offs with the qualifiers from the B and C groups. Not sure how many play off places are up for grabs. Switzerland will get one of them as hosts

turns out that 7 other teams will progress through the play off's but it's a pretty complicated path. With a total of 28 teams going through to the play off's it's almost another tournament in itself

Durhamfootman wrote:It's a big weekend for Newcastle women. Semi final of the Women's National League cup at SJP, which is important enough for them, but it's against Portsmouth. Newcastle and Portsmouth are the runaway leaders of the North and South divisions of the third tier in women's football and assuming it remains that way until the end of the season they will have to play each other for the right to be promoted into the Women's Championship. This semi final will be an opportunity to compare the two teams

I'm wrong. The FA changed the rules for this season, so assuming both teams stay top of their respective leagues, they'll both get promoted to the championship. Not sure how that works, because there is the very real possibility of two southern teams getting relegated from the championship. Hey ho, I suppose they must know what they are doing

Newcastle won 5-1 today and go 14 points clear. Only Forest can catch them, but that would require 5 wins out of 5 for them and 3 losses out of 3 for the lasses.

Durham got thrashed today and are flirting with danger. 4 points clear of the drop zone with 2 to play, but with no wins in the last 5

Sunderland won today and stay top, but by one point only with Palace having a game in hand. They play each other in the last game of the season, so that's building up nicely

Emma Hayes not coming out great after their loss to Arsenal. I don't know where the 'male aggression' comment came from? Simply implying they were only playing with one ball, which was on Chelsea's request, was imo a fair comment.

she's off to the states soon, isn't she?