On a morning where most people are opening the first chocolate filled window of their Advent Calendar and then lazily climbing back into bed, 14 Albury Eagles U12 Girls turned out on the Heath, in driving rain, to warm up for our return fixture Home against Camberley U12 Ravens.

The first fixture was puntuciated by some ‘robust’ challenges, and in truth, a large number of fouls committed against our girls, one of which led to Layla slotting home the resulting free-kick for the 2-1 victory.

The Ravens arrived and our girls immediately recognised the talented individual who so influenced the first game. The game started with cagey midfield exchanges and the occasional long-ball clearance from both sets of centre-backs. Albury girls were playing well, with good approach play but were unable to maintain composure in front of goal with a couple of good chances resulting in strikers shooting wide of the mark. Then, against the run-of-play, the Ravens talented number 10 swung in a lofted drive from the right wing that looped in and over Seren in goal, it was an excellent strike and put us 1-0 down. The Eagles regrouped fantastically well, with all players upping their game and going back on the attack. An early substitution saw Ella come on up front and, with Livs playing just behind her in central midfield, the team found a little bit of penetration and Livs found herself running free on goal to calmly slot home and even the scores at 1-1, and nothing short of what the Eagles deserved at that point. A small tactical change saw Lyla come back on and 5 minutes later, with the momentum shifting the Eagle's way, she had latched onto a loose ball in the Camberley area and swung her foot through it for a 2-1 lead - cue joyous and deserved celebrations from the girls. Ruby, again sporting the captains armband, was taking charge and reminding the players to remain focused for the restart and see us through to the half-time whistle. Despite rolling substitutions, the Albury girls continued to improve in possession and were playing well in the final third of the pitch. Two minutes later, and with the ref poised to blow for half time, Amber dispossessed a Camberley player in the box and comedically collapsed as she attempted to swivel and shoot but did manage to poke the ball to Livs who again hit the back of the net from 8-yards out. The half finished 3-1 and there were smiles despite the increasingly foul weather.

As the second half got underway, more substitutions saw Ella move back to the centre of midfield, Livs move to the right and Molly move to centre back who then proved to be an impressive shield for Seren who was called into action on more than one occasion to make a string of quite amazing saves throughout the half including a great block from a 1-on-1 with the Raven's star player and a convincing double save moments later followed by yet another block and a goal-line clearance from Freya. Despite the to-and-fro of the game, the Eagles remained dominant and the Raven's discipline started to break down with a firm shove grounding a flying Maeve on the right wing on a promising attack. The resulting free-kick was swung into the box and this time was put home by Ella for the first of a rapid-fire brace of goals. With the score at 5-1, Camberley finally managed to sneak one chance past the outstanding Seren to bring it to 5-2 but a miraculous comeback never looked likely with Albury continuing to press every player and challenge every ball. Freya had a couple of awesome runs up the left wing, to release pressure and threaten their defence, and by the end of the game Maeve had covered every blade of rain-soaked grass. Tabitha was solid in defence and again her long-throws released pressure and set up a number of attacks, Emma was solid in the tackle, Maiya disrupted a number of Camberley attacks and Stella was good on the ball and was always looking for passes forward. The whole team were commanding in possession today and, with just 2 minutes left, Livs cut in from the right wing and shot across goal to score our 6th and final goal and complete her hat-trick. A supreme team effort with all girls growing in stature and working hard for each other. Tabs was picked by Camberley as the Albury Eagle's player of the match, a well deserved accolade that could gone to a number of the girls today. Albury go into the Christmas break unbeaten in 7 games and sitting in 2nd place in the league table, Go Eagles!