Rainford Ladies U15s played in the Fleetwood Summer festival yesterday. 

The tournament consisted of 8 teams from across the North West with 7 games of 20 mins to be played.

First up was Whitehaven Juniors, an unknown team to us. They started extremely fast and we found ourselves 0-1 down by half time. But the girls fought back and earned themselves a 1-1 draw. Oakley ⚽️ Izzy (A).

Next up was Gelnavon Belles. Rainford were by far the better team and managed to get their first victory, with a 1-0 win and a superb solo goal, Izzy ⚽️

The 3rd game was against well known Rainhill Panthers. Again, a much one sided affair which the girls won 1-0. Could have been 4 or 5 to be honest. Rubie ⚽️ Izzy (A).

Game 4 against Hynburn, another unknown source and another opportunity to get a further 3 points on the board. With our girls still unbeaten we needed to get our goal difference up. A sublime performance saw us come out as 4-0 winners with two headers from our centre half Eva. Izzy ⚽️ Min (A), Eva ⚽️ Izzy (A), Eva ⚽️ Izzy (A), Mad ⚽️ Oakley (A).

Rainford were creeping up the table and were looking the dark horses of the day.

Next up, Wigan. A team of players well known to the girls. This was a tight game with both teams playing some lovely football, however, it was Wigan who scored the only vital goal 2 mins from the end. Our girls definitely deserved something out of that game, 0-1.

Two games to go and as it stood, if Rainford won their last games they would be crowned champions.

The penultimate was against Tika Taka Monaco who seemed to be grinding out some good results. But it was our girls who came out on top with a 1-0 win. Izzy ⚽️ Oakley (A).

The final game and a must win game for the girls, up against arguably the tournament favourites, Bury.

The girls were certainly up for this one! And a sublime solo goal by Leah saw us 1-0 at half time. With 10 mins to go, we were sitting top. Bury came out strong an equalised after a dubious goal which should have been disallowed for a push. Two mins left and we got a corner, it was a must win game, we gambled throwing our girls up, but unfortunately the gamble didn’t pay off and Bury caught us on the counter and scored. A 2-1 defeat. Leah ⚽️

The coaches and parents could be more proud of the girls, they battled with everything they had from the first whistle to the final whistle.

A brilliant tournament, well done girls 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
⚽️💖🖤⚽️