Mill Lane U12 Girls Win 8th Trophy In Leeds

On a bright and breezy morning Mill Lane travelled to West Yorkshire for the penultimate tournament of their summer tour.

With the organisers limiting teams to only nine players, Mill Lane travelled with Keeper Jessica Wright, Defenders Olivia Nassau, Lauren Hartley & Skie Wyatt, with Millie Sharp, Abbie Longley, Hannah Gray and Demi Watson giving the manager options in midfield and attack.

The first game saw the girl’s play Norristhorpe Panthers and unusually for Mill Lane United they started slowly allowing their opponents to dictate the first half. The second half saw the girls raise their games and Millie Sharp and Demi Watson both scored either side of a Norristhorpe Strike resulting in a 2.1 victory.

In the second match against West Riding league runners up Guiseley saw the girls play to their usual standard, and they dominated possession in a comfortable 3.0 victory with goals from Millie, Demi and Skie. The third game saw the girls play the only side to bet them on their summer tour so far, Skipton Town; however, in an exhibition of 6 a-side football the girls dominated the game.

Abbie Longley was instrumental in man marking their opponents dangerous no 7 and the rest of the team produced a faultless display to win comfortably 4.0 with two goals from Millie and a goal apiece for Demi and Amy Dodds. The last two games against Wigton and Horsforth St Margarets, both resulted in comfortable 2.1 victories with Millie and Abbie both getting a goal while Demi continued her fine form scoring in both games.

As group winner’s Mill Lane United played the other group runners up Ossett Albion in the semi-final and after with only two minutes gone, Abbie Longley played Demi through on goal, and she calmly slotted the ball home to give the girls an early lead. For the rest of the match, the action swung from end to end as Ossett played simple direct football to keep Mill Lane on the back foot. However, Millie Sharp and Skie Wyatt were always equal to any aerial threat and with Olivia Nassau organising the defence, Jessica Wright had a relatively quiet match, which ended 1.0.

The final saw Mill Lane United face Guiseley, who had defeated Leeds in the other semi-final, who were looking for revenge following their 3.0 defeat in the group stage. The first half saw Mill Lane camped in the Guiseley half, eventually taking the lead thanks to another goal from Demi following good work by Millie and Abbie. On the one occasion, they did manage to break out of defence, Guiseley’s centre forward found Jessica Wright in fine form, saving low to her left just before the break.

The second half saw the girls from the East Riding kill the game of with a goal apiece for the two hotshots, Millie and Demi. While substitutes Amy Dodds, Hannah Gray and Lauren Hartley showed the strength of the Mill Lane squad by entering the fray and continuing to dominate possession.
Overall, a superb effort, played eight, won eight, scored 17 conceded 3 with Millie Sharp and Demi Watson top scoring with 5 and 9 goals respectively.

Picture: Girls with their trophies, Captain Olivia Nassau, Millie Sharp, Demi Watson, Skie Wyatt, Amy Dodds, Keeper Jessica Wright, Hannah Gray, Abbie Longley and Lauren Hartley.