Battling 13s’ league cup journey ends

In the team’s third cup weekend in a row, Jeanfield Swifts Girls U13s were eager to make further progress in the League Cup. After dominating in the first round, they knew they would face a stiffer test in the second round, and so it proved to be against a Glenrothes Strollers team that was physically bigger than the home team.
In a nervy start, both sides made early mistakes, but the pressure from the Strollers was intense as they dominated possession. Occasionally Jeanfield’s nippy midfield and strike force were able to break out of defence, but ultimately failed to test the Glenrothes keeper. Back at the other end of the pitch, Jeanfield’s defence was scrambled again and again to make clearances, with Sky Steele’s robust nature and Olivia Laing’s calm-headed approach both proving equally effective at keeping the opposition at bay.
In the home goal, Amelia Macrae is improving every week and pulled off a number of saves to keep the scores at 0-0 at half time.
As the second half Jeanfield made a positional change, swapping Abbie Ferguson onto the wing with Katie Duthie moving up to striker. The move paid dividends within ten minutes as a sweet passing movement out of the Jeanfield box allowed Eilidh Davies and then Abbie to bring the ball forward, before a pass into the Glenrothes box found Katie who fired home.
For a while, the home team now looked on top, and the Glenrothes girls seemed to be tiring. The goal had clearly given the home team confidence, but they were soon reminded of the threat posed by the opposition when the equaliser was fired home from range.
It was now the turn of Glenrothes to gain confidence from their goal, and just as it looked like we might be heading for extra time they scored the winner. There was still a few minutes left for Jeanfield to press and repeatedly they attacked down the wings, forcing some good saves from the Glenrothes keeper.
It was a disappointing end to a league cup campaign, but the girls, all but one of whom are actually U12s at the moment, gave a valiant performance of which they can be proud. They can now look forward to their next game, a fourth cup game in a row, at home to Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup. And congratulations and good luck to the Strollers as they progress into the League Cup quarter finals - hope to see you again after the league splits!