The Team

League Match
SUN 29 APR, 2pm	Airbus UK	1	v	0	Manchester Stingers

Player of the Match
Rachael Scouse Brown

Match Report

Bee’s Eye View:

The sun shone down from a clear blue sky as Manchester Stingers and their fans headed off to Wales for a promotion clincher against fellow title chasers Airbus. The maths was easy (so easy, even I could work it out!): Win or draw the match and Stingers would be promoted; win and Airbus would leapfrog the Yellows to first place by a point. Forget the Premiership, this is where the real table-topping tightness is!

The omens were good as the game kicked off, with a yellow and black (the Whalley Range club’s colours) plane landing on the Airbus airfield and Armstrong beating the Blues defence on the pitch in the first few minutes, going close. It wasn’t long, however before the home team gave Stingers a scare, with a shot just fizzing past the post from the home team’s lone striker. During the rest of the first half Stingers kept Airbus at bay, with the back four working hard to intercept those balls over the top. Meanwhile, up-front, Vicky just shot wide from a long-range shot, and Jinny just flicked over the bar from a great corner from Scouse, but all in all, neither team looked like scoring.

The second half started with Stingers dominating, but little by little Airbus applied more pressure, never letting our girls have any time on the ball, and snuffing out most of our forward play with some great blocks, or anticipating final passes through to Armstrong and Irish Nic. Maybe nerves started getting to the Yellows, or perhaps that extra midweek game was taking its toll on tired legs, but our players just lacked that extra something needed to find a way through the home team’s defence. Having said that, apart from a few narrow misses, Airbus didn’t look much like scoring either, with nil – nil the most likely outcome of the match.

And then, as the game went into the final 15 minutes, the defining moments happened: Jinny had done well to get forward on the right, sending in a great cross which just went past Irish Nic in the box. From this near-miss Airbus cleared downfield, causing a scramble in the Yellow’s penalty area, with Scouse trying to get the ball out of harm’s way. Unbelievably, the next thing that happened was the ref blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot, deeming the challenge unfair. Under immense pressure, the Airbus penalty taker shot and scored, despite the away team and followers all willing her to miss, so it was 1 – 0 with 10 minutes to go.

Even then Stingers’ heads didn’t go down, in fact the Manchester team worked even harder and had even more chances, with a corner from sub Irish Emma giving Scouse a chance for a late-late shot that went just over the bar. The seconds kept ticking away though, and finally the ref blew for full time, leaving the Blues up on cloud nine and the Yellows down in the dumps. What a cruel game football is.

After re-grouping back in Manchester, the restorative power of alcohol did it’s trick and the news that Karen has decided to continue coaching the team really lifted spirits. And anyway, what would a Manchester Stingers season be without the team’s intense local rivalry with GMP, or having a bit of handbags at Buxton, or playing in the sideways rain at Frodsham, or somehow missing an armed robbery at Urmston? So, congratulations Yellows on gaining the highest league placing in the club’s history, and here’s to 2007 / 2008 for another six months of thrills, spills and great football!

Effort of the post-match: That’ll be Katie Fingers; One minute she’s a martyr to her blisters and can hardly walk, the next (and several pints of beer later) she’s on the dance floor with Aisha strutting her West Country funky stuff.

Idiot of the match: Sorry to hog the limelight girls (or in this case sun light), but that’ll be me again: Despite having a sun-block stick in my pocket on Sunday, I forgot to put any on my nose, and went into work on Monday looking like I’d turned up for the first day of clown school (yes, even more than I usually do).

Philippa Jarman