Cambridge United Women Under-18s bounce back from defeat to Hayes & Yeading with thumping county cup victory over Burwell

Cambridge United Women Under-18s had a weekend of contrasting fortunes, suffering a frustrating 2-1 loss to an injury-time goal on Saturday and a morale-boosting 16-0 win the day after in their first venture into senior women’s football, writes Robert Coe.

The 2-1 defeat to Hayes & Yeading in the Junior Premier League came despite creating the majority of goal-scoring chances whereas the Cambridge Invitation Cup thrashing of Burwell Ladies saw eight players on the scoresheet including five goals for Natasha Coe and four for Millie Docking.

Manager Sean Greygoose said the differing results were all part of the footballing education for his young players.

“Two games in two days were always going to be a challenge but a really good one in the next steps for the girls,” he said.

“There were lots of positives over the two games but, like every week, there is still lots to work on, so it’s been a great learning curve for all of them.”

Greygoose added that the U’s were on top in the first half at Hayes but didn’t capitalise on their superiority, then the home team were better in second half and took their chance at the end.

He continued: “Although they scored in injury time, our girls still created another chance to snatch a draw that shows we are competing at this level.

“Sunday’s game was a leap into the unknown as for many of the girls it was their first taste of senior football which is the next step in their development.

“Although lots of goals were scored, even better was the way we created the chances and different types of goals we scored.

“We had a slight change of shape which was something we wanted to look at and the outcomes from that were good but still I want us to be more ruthless in front of goal.

“However, on the whole a pleasing weekend with lots of minutes for the girls, no injury concerns and hopefully a bit of confidence was built in front of goal.”

The first part of the double-header saw the young U’s travel to west London for their third game of the JPL season.

Hayes & Yeading got the first goal after a mix up in the United defence on 28 minutes, however top-scorer Natasha Coe equalised on the hour.

A high press by the U’s forced the home team to lose possession, the ball was picked up by Coe on the 18-yard line who drilled the ball low into the bottom corner.

As the game entered time added on, disaster struck for United as the Hayes striker took the ball past the visiting defence and finished neatly into the far corner.

Then with literally the last kick of the game, United had a double chance to level again. Lily Horsler’s free kick from the left was on target but was palmed away by the goalkeeper, then Sydney Daniels’ follow up went into the side netting.

The second game of the weekend to lowly Burwell was a different matter as the U’s were on top throughout the 90 minutes racking up 16 goals in the process.

The visitors were 5-0 up after 16 minutes and in the second half the floodgates really opened as United ran out easy winners to set up a tie with Chatteris Town on Sunday, November 19.