The sharks started the game without strikers Abi as she was bed ridden and unable to make the game, along with Kate who just could not quite convince the boss that this was an important game.  The Workers girls started quickly and put early pressure on Noni in the goals, who held out well.  She was ably assisted by the physic Coggo, whose vast experience and knowledge of what was coming her way played an exceptional game. 

It seemed the workers girls were playing a strange shape, as they more often than not left 5 girls on our 2 forwards with 3 up front themselves, which gave lots of room and space for Kenny and Katie to dominate the midfield.  It soon come to fruition as Chloe was able to put a deft cross to JJ who was sitting high in front of the net andwas able to press past a defender and push the shot past the Workers goalie for the 1^st goal in the 41^st minute. 

Coming of at half time, up by one goal was tremendous, as we now had a full squad.  Katrina had made a speedy trip from her 5pm meeting in Brisbane.  This gave us the ability to rest the defenders, as they were working hard keeping the 3 workers strikers away from our net.  Ella seemed to be at her best again and their go-to girl tried her best to overcome Ella but just couldn’t get passed.  She had to resort to roughhouse tactics to get passed, but the ref saw through that and gave the free kick to the sharks.

In the 54^th minute Chloe ran onto a through ball from the workaholic Kenny, while under pressure from a couple of defenders, and pushed the ball past the Goalie to make it count.  Subs were being rolled on and off by this time and the midfielders were keeping the opposition on the back foot and they just could not penetrate.   Alysha, Mel and Leah, supported by Kenny and Katie dropping back in defence, covered any attack by the girls in red.  A couple of late bursts up front from Julie and Meg brought us very close to getting a third goal. 

The Workers girls were putting everything they had up front to get a goal. Hats off to the girls of the back line who just did not give up as Selina, Heidi and Ella controlled everything they put through, guided once again by Coggo, who showed great leadership throughout the last quarter of the game.  This required giving a spray to the subs on the bench to focus on the game and keep positive. There was no milky bar kid award this week, but the players of the match were Kenny, Katie and Coggo, who were just leaps in front of the Workers girls.

The Carrot Sharks will be out looking for Richmond Rovers “Rissoles” next week after their loss to Bangalow, so it will be off to training with the focus on the next game in our march to the final.

The last competition game of the season was against the strong Bangalow side that have finished in 2^nd place on the table.  Lennox, for the first time in some weeks, were all available for this match and ready to play on Sunday afternoon.  We won the toss and started with the sun at our backs, with a clear plan of attack of three forwards keen to get on the match card with goals.  Unfortunately, the Bangalow defence was holding well considering they only had ten players.   There were plenty of shots but not enough on target and from close enough range.  Numerous opportunities we were warded off in the early stages of the match.

With Kenny B pushing hard from the back line, the speedy Bangalow forward got past our defensive line and out-sprinted our last defender, to create a one on one with Noni  who held well but at the last moment picked the wrong way to go and was beaten to her left by a well placed ball in the 33^rd minute. 

Once again the hard work of Abi kept Bangalow’s experienced centre back working hard to keep the ball away from her goal. Half time came and we were down by that single goal with many opportunities created but none taken.

 The second half commenced with a few minor changes in an attempt to thwart the speed of the Bangalow striker.  This kept the play more controlled from the back line.  The heat of the day kept the bench changing with constant work in the midfield from Selina, Leah, Alysha, Julie and Mel. Many more opportunities were created but none were finished off in front of goal with the end result remaining at 1 goal to Bangalow. This was a vast improvement from the 2^nd round where the girls went down by 8 goals. 

The Milky Bar kid for the game was tireless worker Abi, who never gave up.   Daylight was 2^nd, but the 2 points were collected by Selina and the single by Leah.   A special mention to E Dog, who’d left her eyes at the Cooly Hotel and Saturday night. 

The Lennox girls now start the finals competition on Friday night when we take on Workers  at their ground on Friday night in sudden death football.  With a full squad we are a strong chance, only going down to them by one goal in the 3^rd round, when we only had nine of the prem girls available with the numbers being filled by those wonderful 2^nd’s girls who have helped out  all season.

Saturday 25th September at Lennox Thai Garden from 6pm for cocktails

Tickets $35 per person includes 3 course banquet and live entertainment

Tickets MUST be pre-purchased from:

Melinda Campbell – Ph: 0431187320

Christine Greiner at Lennox Head Public Library

LHFC canteen

If you would like laminated photo certificates for your team please send through a team photo by 14th August, 2010.

In recognition of all our coaches, managers, volunteers and sponsors, we are holding a thank you day on Saturday 7^th August between 1pm and 5:30pm at Skennars Head.  If you are a coach, sponsor, manager or volunteer, please join the committee on this day for a few drinks and a BBQ to say thank you for your support of LHFC in 2010.

Please contact Brenda on 66877300 if you can make it.

PLEASE BRING TO THE CANTEEN THIS WEEKEND.  THE AMOUNT IS $57.60 PER BOX  (SOME  HAVE BEEN RETURNED WITHOUT THE CORRECT PAYMENT-PLEASE CHECK WHAT IS IN YOUR ENVELOPE)

IF YOU CAN’T GET TO THE CANTEEN PLEASE PHONE BRENDA ON

 66 877300 OR DROP INTO LENNOX HEAD LIBRARY.

WE NEED THIS TO BE FINALISED SO THAT WE CAN MEET OUR END OF YEAR COMMITMENTS.  Your co-operation is appreciated

 We conceded a goal in the 36^th minute to the speedy Workers right midfielder, when our flat back line got pierced by a good through ball and left poor Noni Mac 1 on 1 with an experienced premier player. We got on the board from a set play corner where the new gem to the carrot sharks, Kenny B got her head to the ball to equalize in the 61^st minute to bring the game level.

Even though we were obviously getting tired, the girls one and all showed heart and soul far above expected, keeping workers at bay, especially Abbi and Leah in midfield when Workers were constantly subbing and bringing on fresher players. Workers got a late goal from a set play corner from a header just above the reach of Noni Mac in the 84^th minute.

The mikybar kid for the game on 3 points was young livewire Abbi Allardyce on 3 points 2 points went to Noni Mac with a shared point to Kenny B and 2^nd’ division substitute Jessica Jago.  Big games were had by Mel,  who eventually got the measure of Worker’s best player, Chloe, Ella E Dog, Julie and Leah, who just would not give up even though there was next to nothing left in the tank.   Coggo showed great leadership on the run, to change the shape of the defensive line to minimise the through balls.  Her knowledge and reading of play is most valuable.

Special thankyou from the prem girls to Jessica, Christine and Megan for supporting the team, so we could field a full squad.  This leaves the run to the finals just that much harder when in the last 4 games we meet the two top teams three times, starting with Alstonville on Sunday the 1^st of August.

The result was a loss of 10 goals to 2 but the score was not a true measure of the game.   Keeper Noni Mac played one of her best games. We conceded goals in patches of three in under 10 minutes indicating lapses in concentration, along with lack of vision and speed in the back.  For 60 minutes of the match we held them at bay, which is good play considering the Bangalow girls sit atop the ladder.  

On the bright side there was a well taken penalty in the 53^rd minute by Kenny B after Chloe was fouled while running the ball into the box under pressure.  The 2^nd goal of the game was one of those memorable moments with a  “creative” short corner by Selina to Mel  who fed the ball back out to the top of the box where Kenny drilled the ball into the back of the net giving the Bangalow keeper  no hope.  It was world cup quality and picked the momentum up considerably.  Soon after Bangalow had a similar shot, but Noni diving full stretch, parallel to the ground was able to push the ball away to the side beyond the net. The milky bar kid for the game had to be Noni with 3 points, Kenny with 2 and a welcome return from injury for Abi with a single point. A special mention must go to Andrea for filling in on such a miserable night.

It was a double header weekend as Sunday saw the ladies take on Workers with some positional changes.  We won the game 1 goal to nil with the goal coming early in the 7^th minute of the first half from our “new” sweeper, the vegetarian Tasmanian hyped up on V,  Kenny.  We held Workers out for the rest of the half and made lots of chances in the 2^nd half. We will need to make the most of these opportunities in the coming weeks if we are to stay on target for a top three spot. The milky bar kid this game was Kenny closely followed by Selina on 2 points, who by her own admission was missing her first touch a little but never conceded ground to the Workers girls.  The single point went to Kate Hinton who just keeps on motoring all game.  Also playing well were Mel and Abi who just missed out on the points. Many thanks again to our 2nd div girls for filling in, Katrina and Jessica, better known as JJ.

On Friday the 16^th of July we travelled to East Lismore to take on the Rovers girls on a bitterly cold night. We travelled with only 10 of our own players, once again missing key positions, but as we have in past games, we gave it a good shot.  We lost 2 goals to nil but these goals came once again in a short period of time.  We held them to nil all at half time and only conceded when our centre back was needing a rest.  Whilst her replacement was warming up we let in goals in the 65^th & the 67^th minutes. The Carrot Sharks were finishing the better with shots on goal and numerous chances by Chloe and Kate Hinton giving the Rovers defence plenty of headaches.  The Milky Bar kid for this game was Leah, fresh back from a trip to Queenstown, who reinvented and pulled off the shot of the match but was unlucky not to score.  2 points to Kenny and once again Kate Hinton in for a single point.  For a player who can’t make training, she has tremendous stamina and heart.  Good games were also had by Mel and Heidi, who never stopped working in the defence.  Once again thanks for the help from the girls from the 2nds Katrina, Andrea & Meg.

Another double header weekend saw us on Sunday take on Goonellabah, who are winless but not to be taken lightly.  The sharks started well pressuring their backs from the get go with Chloe starting the scoring in the 16^th minute.  Coggo in her new role in the midfield was slightly lacking pizzazz, though still managed to put in a goal in the 23^rd minute, then found herself soon after falling like a bag of spuds after miss-timing  a header  as she tried to figure out if she was “Cath” or “Coggo”. Two more goals before half time by Leah and Kate Hinton saw us go to the sheds up 4 nil.  In the 2^nd half we conceded a goal on the 52^nd minute when Noni misjudged a spinning ball and got beaten like a South African batsman facing a Shane Warne leggie.  After that, Goonellabah seemed to think they had a sniff, but the hard working, dependable backline gave them nothing.   Well done Mel, Heidi  and the E Dog, Ella. We then got back on top with strikers Kate and Chloe peppering the keeper, who eventually conceded an own goal in the 61^st minute followed by another well finished goal from Chloe. The milky bar kid this game was the ever improving Mel , who had their main striker without an option other than to change her hair colour.  2 points to Chloe with her brace of goals and the E  Dog gets on the board with 1, thinking she didn’t really do much.   That’s how easy she plays the game.  A great result all up with a 6 to 1 score line.  Well played by Kenny, Abi , Leah  and Coggo, who also scored well on the points.

Let’s look forward to the next game against Workers on Friday night 23^rd, where we need to take those precious 3 points.