Southwater and Leechpool Win Girls Football Glory

The final meeting of this season’s Horsham Primary Schools Girls Football League took place yesterday at the Tanbridge astroturf and there was some more great play from the girls attending to climax the process.

In Division A Southwater A started the evening behind Heron Way B but they quickly made their game in hand count with a confident 2-0 victory over the Herons’ A team. St Mary’s Pulborough next felt the force although did manage a consolation goal in the face of the three they conceded. Steyning A, returning after missing the last meeting, couldn’t halt the juggernaut either, also conceding three. Captain Ruby W ensured the Southies’ high standards never dropped.

Despite Southwater A’s continued winning run Heron Way B refused to be shaken off in their pursuit, their style being characterised by not scoring many but not conceding any, this week Castlewood and Kingslea A being able to testify after single goal defeats. All led to the fitting last match climax of the two meeting each other albeit made slightly less tense by the fact that Heron Way B would have to beat the favourites by six clear goals. Two Southwater goals extinguished any faint hopes and they were champions.

Heron Way A recovered well from their early Southwater reverse with three wins that elevated them to runners-up spot, just pipping their Bs to that honour at the last. Southwater B’s two additional wins saw them into fourth. Florence D and Erin H both showed a range of good skills in support of their team’s efforts.

From the bottom half teams well done to St Mary’s Pulborough for achieving fifth spot. Brooke G demonstrated her goalscoring prowess and Bella B defending pedigree for the Pulbies. Just behind them Kingslea A; no wins on the night but good performances delivered from Lara, Lauren and Noreen.

Castlewood and Steyning A battled it out for the bottom two places. They shared a goalless draw first up and despite Steyning’s 1-0 win over Pulborough the Castles managed to hold them off by one point. Castlewood credits go to Sienna H and Emilia for sharing the goalkeeping responsibilities and making some great saves, Amber A made some fine tackles and Evie P’s sportsmanship was top notch.

Division B was no less exciting although affected by more default results as a consequence of the extended absence of Steyning B and the late withdrawal of Northolmes. 

At the start of the night Leechpool A started in the slightly surprising position of looking upwards to their own B team in the table. However the two were to experience markedly contrasting fortunes. Leechpool B dropped like a stone with a sequence of defeats sending them down from top to fifth whilst Leechpool A went from strength to strength as a result of two default wins, a draw with Rusper and a comprehensive 3-0 beating of their Leechpool stablemates. Six wins and a draw comfortably seeing Leechpool A to being champions of the second tier then.

In the gap created by the diverging fortunes of the two Leechpool oufits emerged a battle supreme for second place between Southwater C and Rusper. Southwater C benefitted from two default wins and a real world 2-0 defeat of St John’s. Chloe P and Rosie M were instrumental in that victory. Rusper – inspired by Brooke G in goal, Tabitha G in defence and Mia M in midfield – started out with their own 2-0 success to start Leechpool B’s slide for the night. A one-all draw with Leechpool A appeared to underline their title-winning potential but then in their last two matches with lower placed teams St John’s and Kingslea B they drew blanks in two scoreless draws. So they had to settle for third spot despite remaining unbeaten through the process. Don’t be surprised to see Rusper making a bid for a striker in the January transfer window!

Kingslea B had a good final night rising three places in the standings to fourth as a result of two draws and a victory. Sophie T was their outstanding performer. St John’s, with Maya W excellent, came in in sixth and will be pleased with holding Kingslea B and Rusper to draws. 

Northolmes and Steyning B inevitably brought up the rear as a result of their absences dictated by circumstances.

Thanks to the referees and Millais sports leader helpers for their excellent work in support of the league.

RESULTS

MEETING 3

PITCH 1 (NEAREST TO ENTRY GATE)

GROUP 1

PITCH 2

GROUP 2

PITCH 3

GROUP 3

PITCH 4 (FURTHEST FROM GATE)

GROUP 4

4.05-4.19

Castlewood v Steyning A

0                     0

 

Southwater A v Heron Way A

2                        0

St John’s v Northolmes

St John’s 2-0 default win

 

Steyning B v Leechpool A

Leechpool A 2-0 default win

 

4.21-4.35

Kingslea A v Southwater B

1                        2

 

Southwater A v Pulborough

3                        1

Leechpool B v Rusper

0                      2

Steyning B v Southwater C

Southwater C 2-0 default win

4.37-4.51

Heron Way A v Steyning A

2                     0

 

Heron Way B v Castlewood

1                       0

Leechpool A v Northolmes

Leechpool A 2-0 default win

 

Kingslea B v St John’s

0                       0

4.53-5.07

Heron Way B v Kingslea A

1                         0

 

Southwater B v Heron Way A

0                         1

Kingslea B v Leechpool B

1                      0

Rusper v Leechpool A

1                        1

5.09-5.23

Castlewood v Pulborough

0                      2

 

Steyning A v Southwater A

0                        3

St John’s v Southwater C

0                      2

Northolmes v Steyning B

Match void

5.25-5.39

Pulborough v Steyning A

0                       1

 

Southwater B v Castlewood

2                       0

Southwater C v Northolmes

Southwater C 2-0 default win

Rusper v St John’s

0                      0

5.41-5.55

Heron Way A v Kingslea A

1                         0

 

Southwater A v Heron Way B

2                         0

Leechpool A v Leechpool B

3                       0

Steyning B v Kingslea B

Kingslea B 2-0 default win

 

       Rusper v Kingslea B

0                     0

TABLES

Division A

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

Southwater A

7

7

0

0

19

1

35

Heron Way A

7

5

1

1

10

2

29

Heron Way B

7

4

2

1

5

2

27

Southwater B

7

4

1

2

7

5

25

Pulborough

7

2

0

5

6

8

16

Kingslea A

7

1

1

5

4

9

14

Castlewood

7

0

2

5

1

15

11

Steyning A

7

1

1

5

0

6

10

Division B

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

Leechpool A

7

6

1

0

22

1

33

Southwater C

7

5

1

1

8

6

29

Rusper

7

3

4

0

8

1

27

Kingslea B

7

2

3

2

4

5

21

Leechpool B

7

3

0

4

6

8

19

St John’s

7

2

2

3

4

8

19

Northolmes

7

0

1

2

2

15

6

Steyning B

7

0

0

3

0

14

0