The under 16 girls had their first National League match on Sunday against Western Wildcats. Thank you to the crowd of onlookers who supported the girls ,umpire Sandi Dawson and coach Esther Walterson.

The game was fairly even for the first quarter with both sides settling in to how they play. The stronger visitors were met with some strong tackling early on in the match as the GCW girls were keen to impress. It was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter and both sides in it. The second quarter started off less promising as Western broke down the right side and managed to slot home the opening goal. The girls were not deterred however and some good attacking play from Lucy Cruickshank saw her narrowly miss the target, The equaliser was not long in coming though as possession was won in the middle of the field and Ava Airnes spied Lucy Cruickshank on her right at the top of the circle. Lucy collected and calmly finished to level the score at 1-1.

The third quarter of the game however was not so good for GCW. Wildcats took advantage of some poor marking and disorganisation in the GCW ranks to win a sequence of corners. At the end of the quarter the visitors had extended to a 4-1 lead. The quarter break did the GCW girls a lot of good as they came out with more intent and when Hannah Love netted early in the quarter it looked like the game was not quite over. Then with 5 minutes to go a fine pass broke the Wildcats defence and Dani Dawson came forward to finish and set up a very interesting end to the game.

Wildcats took the game into the corners to try and keep what they had but with less than a minute remaining they managed to hit the ball across the circle. The ball found it’s bouncing way to the back post to a surprised forward who whilst protecting herself from the ball deflected it home to score and secure the victory at 5-3 for the visitors.

A good game quite close but experience told in the end. Next up Gullane away in November.