Isle of Man U18 girls faced a strong Folkestone team, we knew we would have a tough game ahead as they are a team who scored 28 goals so far in the competition, and conceding just 2.

The team started positive, with some good forward running from forwards Sofia Cosgrave, Lucy Cartwright and Hannah Nuttall. Our first chance coming very early in the game with Cosgrave intercepting a loose Folkestone pass, and progressing the ball towards goal, but we couldn’t upgrade and convert the chance with the Folkestone defence tracking back in numbers and regaining possession.

Folkestone found some luck down the right hand channel, with some tricky base lane runs and crosses, constantly causing a threat by putting the ball into dangerous areas. Captain and GK Robyn Stones made multiple impressive saves, but the first goal was scored through a close range effort following the initial save by Stones, giving the opposition a 1-0 lead. 

There was more of the same for the remainder of the first half, with Folkestone creating chances and threatening our goal, with Stones making countless saves, a clinical Folkestone attack were capitalising on the rebounds and utilising their well worked short corners and so found themselves 4-0 up 30 minutes into the match. 

Folkestone were then awarded a penalty flick as a result of a stick tackle in the D, which Stones excellently saved to keep the game 4-0 at half time.

Our closest chance of the first half came from a superb midfield run by Evie Watterson, who ran the ball the length of the pitch and managed to put the ball across, which was narrowly missed by the Manx forwards, but this gave the girls confidence that there were chances still to come in the game.

After a team talk and a slight rearrange of positions, we set up for the second half with Cartwright dropping in as an additional midfielder with the hopes of getting her on the ball more. Giving some extra support to the centre of the pitch, which allowed for a much more even second half.

Our play improved as the game went on, with the team attacking and defending as a unit. The girls were focused on not letting the score impact our game. We saw lots of strong midfield play from Lucy Cartwright, Macey Crellin, Evie Watterson, Elena Caley and Ruby McCubbin, with some smart link ups and ball progression. 

We found most of our luck going forward in the wide areas, where our wing backs, namely Jemma Quayle, Hannah Ashton-Forster and Olivia Quayle played some great attacking hockey down the channels, combining with the midfielders to bypass the Folkestone players. 

As we grew into the game, we sustained longer spells of possession towards the end of the second half, this resulted in the team progressing up the field and winning a number of short corners. We were unfortunate not to convert any of these chances, but the girls were relentless in their fight, and continued to threaten the Folkestone back line.

Throughout the second half, Folkestone managed to grab a further 2 goals, 1 from a strong short corner strike and another from close range from an initial Stones save.

As voted by the team, Player of the Match was joint between Robyn Stones (GK), who had a phenomenal game, saving shot after shot, and leading the team from the back, and Megan Simpson (CB) who played a calm and composed game, and did an excellent job at distributing the ball out from defence, plus prevented many Folkestone attacks with some crucial tackles in and around the D.

Overall it was an unfortunate end to a great run in the competition for our U18 girls, but they can be extremely proud of their efforts in getting this far.