Review/Preview... Call It What You Wish!

Last night the Under 18's moved a giant step closer to retaining their league title when the beat Sheffield Rangers 17-0 at Balby Carr on the 3G surface, hopefully banishing any lingering demons from the first back-to-back defeats suffered by the squad since the last great Icelandic volcanic eruption.

The Belles side had stuttered in the league on Monday evening when they had been beaten by Sheffield United Community ladies team who took advantage (to their credit) of a performance of such stature from a referee, which must surely make him a late challenger to go to South Africa - how often do we hear on the TV pundits applauding anonymous officials who let the match run at its natural pace? This of course followed hot on the heels of another fine performance on the Saturday which saw the Belles beaten again by worthy winners Sheffield Wednesday in the cup final which the neutral would have loved but which caused both managers to become intimate with their first-aid bags.

Last night's victory for the Belles sees them now need to register one more win against the same Sheffield Rangers side on the 26th April in order to take the title from Wednesday's grasp on goal difference.

Last night also saw the Under 12's warm up for their cup final appearance this Saturday against Middlewood Rovers with a friendly against the Under 13's.  Although the 13's eventually ran out as comfortable winners, the real difference between the sides was age and size, something that won't be as much of an issue come Saturday.  If the 12's can battle and compete physically the way that they did last night they've got a great chance of silencing the poisonous barbs that have appeared on some social networking/headworking sites in recent months.

Speaking of the cup final, don't forget to travel down to Outo Kumpo on Saturday morning (24th April) for the last of our 2 cup final appearances.  The Under 10's are due to kick off at 10:00am against Beighton magpies with the 12's playing that grudge match at 11:30am  The Beighton team finished their league season in 5th spot, a full 25 points behind our Under 10's league winners and on each meeting in the league the belles recorded 5-0 wins over this Saturday's opponents but as we saw last Saturday, strange things acn happen in the cup.  The Under 12's match looks on paper to be an altogether more difficult match to call.  The meetings in the league saw the belles win the home encounter 4-3 and lose the away match 2-0; as the last cup final to be played this season it's probably a fitting and exciting finale.  Good luck to the 10's 12's also the 18's over the next few days, and of course the 16's who travel to Manchester  representing Sheffield & Hallamshire in the Northern England National Finals.   

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