Batley go down in a 1-0 defeat against Leeds

With aching muscles from the day before, both Batley and Leeds congregated in Horsforth for the second game of the weekend. There would be an extra layer of difficulty today, as we would also be playing against the ferocious wind.

Having won the day before, we were going in to this game on a high. It was quickly clear however that Leeds were a well-practiced team who play together often and had good clear plans for getting though our defence.

Marking was really difficult, as the Leeds forwards switched and changed, slipping in gaps created by the movement and making break after break. Before Batley had gotten to grips with this tactic, Leeds scored to make it 1-0.

We were determined not to go down easily though and fought back with some great attacks of our own. Little one-twos between the midfield and forwards got the ball in to the Leeds half. We had chosen to run against the wind in the first half, in the hope that we would benefit from it in the second half.

Leeds were marking each free hit really closely, pulling our midfield and forwards deep in to the pitch in order to get the ball through.

Halftime saw the game still at 1-0, Batley had faced and stopped a few short corners and had some close chances of our own.

Second half would mean the wind behind us and a small advantage. We were hopeful that we could take advantage of this. Leeds continued to switch around positions and confuse the man marking, something that we were finding really difficult to deal with. Helens keeping kept us in the game many times.

Sarah was racing all over the pitch, trying to get through the wall of Leeds players and keep the play in their half, pushing on to our forwards again and again. It was during one of these attacks that, while fetching the ball for a sideline hit, Sarah managed to acquire her DOD status by hitting her head on a 5-a-side goal crossbar, causing the match to be halted while she recovered! It was also this determination that got her Man of the match too.

Unfortunately, we were never able to make back the lost goal at the beginning of the game, despite some really close chances, the game ended 1-0 to Leeds.

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