The first game for the Under 12 Rep girls was against Shoalhaven kicking off at 11-15 on the Saturday morning following light rain. The sun came out and got quite hot during the game.
The game started out very even with both Teams attacking and in the 13th minute Shoalhaven attacked down the left side and were deep into our half when right back Ava Nicholson cleared the ball and in doing the ball hit an attacking player in the face, Ava and two or three other STFA Players stopped to see if this Player was ok. We all though the Referee would stop play but the young Referee looked confused by what had taken place but allowed play to continue and a goal resulted. To our credit the Players and supporters accepted the Referees call and got on with the game.
Down 1 nil at half time we got back on even terms with Shoalhaven in the 6th minute of the second half when Ava Nicholson picked up the ball deep in her half and ran the ball up the right side getting the behind the home Team’s defence and netting a top class goal. For the rest of the game we were by far the better Team but could not break down the Shoalhaven defence.
Still a 1 all draw with the strong Shoalhaven Team was a good result remembering that all but three of the 11 players were playing their first Rep game, but it is a game we could have won.
Our second game of the day was against Phoenix SAP which is a development Team based at Nowra. They were a bigger and better Team than us and run out winners 4 nil, but our Team will be better for playing against a stronger Team and when we meeting them in Goulburn in 3 weeks we could get a different result.
Our 3rd game of the weekend was against Eurobodalla who started the game with only 9 Players. Ten minutes into the game they lost another player and at this moment the STFA Coach took off two players in an effort to even up the games and subbed the Players making sure almost every player including our two best defenders took turns on the bench.
The first half was even and the Teams went to the half break nil all. It was not till the 13 minute of the second half when Ave Nicholson scored her second goal of the weekend and this was backed up 4 minutes later when Mikaela Harris scored to put the game safe for the STFA.
