City Reserves go down to Cowdenbeath (a fan's report)
Glasgow City Reserves lost 5-1 at home today to Cowdenbeath.
As a City fan, this was a tough game to watch, with City under the cosh right from the start. City's youngsters were forced to start with ten players, two of whom hadn't played for the club before (one of them had never even played a full game of football before), but despite the result, the team performed with a great deal of character, particularly with Iona Colville in defence and Lyndsey Anderson, operating as the lone striker for pretty much the entirety of the match.
Both Colville and Anderson performed with great determination and Anderson was unlucky not to come away with a hat-trick. Number 38, Sarah Major, played whilst feeling sick, but barely flagged, despite the pressure the team was under. Sadly the team relied too much on Anderson up front, and a couple of opportunities to send the ball forward through attacking midfielder Marni Russell, particularly in the second half, were left unexploited.
The experience of the Cowdenbeath team was what told in the end, but it still took over half an hour for Fife side to take the lead on 31minutes.
City could easily have gone in at half time level but, on 38minutes, their opponents took another step towards a victory, again by exploiting a badly overstreched City backline.
Lyndsey Anderson finally got City on the scoresheet (after being denied twice in the first half), when she scored a well taken goal eight minutes into the second half.
Sadly, before City could reorganise themselves, the Fife outfit scored to restore their two goal lead.
Following this, despite tremendous efforts from Iona Colville, Lyndsey Anderson, Sarah Major and Marni Russell, in particular, sheer tiredness led to two more Cowdenbeath goals, after 62minutes & 85minutes.
Overall, it was a disappointing result, but again, the team played well and as a unit showed great character despite the diffculties of being forced to play without numerous injured and missing players. City never surrendered any of the goals without forcing the Fife side to great effort. The only real negative was the a fact that the team failed to utilise the good runs of Marni Russell and the fact that the team was forced to play the entire game with only ten players notwithstanding.
Match report by City Fan Ray Harley 13.09.09
If you would like to submit a report for the website, after watching a City match, please email the secretary with your report after the game - secretary@glasgowcityladiesfc.co.uk
