A proud achievement for Girls Football at St. Clare's

Leonie Jung-Irrgang, Carole Muriithi and Emma Harvey represented St. Clare's Football Club at the recent Independent Schools Football Association (ISFA) under 18 Regional Representative Tournament. The girls played on the Home Counties Team.

Tournament Report by Susannah Abbott (Chair of the ISFA)

The Home Counties did themselves proud at the ISFA U18 Regional Representative Tournament. After a very quick warm up they were thrown in at the deep end against a well organised Scotland team. Scotland exerted much of the pressure and the Home Counties goalkeeper Emma Cole was called upon to make a number of decent saves. However, Scottish pressure finally paid off as they scored either side of half time to make it 2-0.

Next up was the South-East. The Home Counties did really well to hold them to 0-0 for a good twenty minutes before conceding a couple of goals. With barely time to catch their breath (literally) the Home Counties played the Midlands. Here they played their best football and were unlucky not to take the lead after some good work by Captain Issy Brown. However, this seemed to act as a wake up call and the Midlands came alive putting two goals past the Home Counties.

The final game was an exciting and close encounter against the South West. Despite having lost three on the trot, the Home Counties grew as this game went on and started to look increasingly confident. Leonie Jung-Irrgang latched onto a through ball in the first half, took a couple of touches and then smashed the ball into the back of the net leaving the South-East Keeper with no chance. The composure of the finish was quite something. Home Counties then soaked up pressure as the South-West came back and they were unlucky not to equalise when the ball came crashing off the cross bar. With minutes to go, Leonie Jung-Irrgang was unlucky not to get a second after her shot beat the keeper but not the bottom right hand post.

Ending on a high certainly made some tired leg not so tired. Every player did themselves proud - Emma Cole was absolute class and without her safe hands some of the scores could certainly have been much greater; Emma Harvey was immense at Centre Back; Carole Muriithi showed some awesome touches and skill at times; Leanna Jones grew as the tournament went on and was a rock at left back then centre back; Nina Klausen played through the pain barrier and made some impresive last ditch tackles. Alice Stowe showed composure and strength in the middle of the park; Issy Brown was technicially excellent and played some delightful balls to the forwards; Rowena Sharp who had barely played before was truly excellent - strong in the tackle and the Home Counties coach's player of the festival; Gabby Richardson never stopped running up front and chasing what seemed lost causes; Clarrisa Heck did the same on the right wing and made some very intelligent runs; Nell Vokes was superb on the left wing and caused all the opposition defences problems.

March