A game of two halves

This was indeed a game of two halves with Leopold finding it hard to get anywhere near the Doncaster goal in the first half. With usual goalkeeper Abi Dixon unavailable, Saskia Shakesheff stepped in but was a spectator for most of the first half. This was largely due to some sterling defending and new recruit Verena Schoenfeld man-marking the Leoplold captain, who for the first 15 minutes had been Leopold's playmaker and main route into the Doncaster circle.

Leoplold's goal came from nowhere about half way through the first 35 and was not necessarily with the run of play. Doncaster heads didn't go down though and soon after they were agonisingly denied the equaliser by the post from a superb strike on the edge of the circle from Meghan Wharton. It was harsh but Doncaster rallied and Michelle McHale and Mary Shakesheff were pressurising the Leopold circle time and again.

Doncaster started the 2nd half with confidence and the game was very evenly balanced until not long after the restart, when an injury changed the course of the game.

Sadly, this game was a baptism of fire for Verena Schoenfeld as she took a stick to the face on the edge of her own circle and left the field with a suspected broken nose (thankfully, after a visit to A&E it was discovered that it wasn't)

Doncaster had to reshuffle and moved Kerry Haslam from centre back to centre mid and Paige Taylor to centre back.

After this, the team just seemed to be chasing the game and couldn't regain the cohesion they had earlier. Leopold took hold of the game from this point and scored 3 goals in 15 minutes, putting the game completely out of Doncaster's reach. Hopefully things will be different when Doncaster again face Leoplold in 2 week's time in the first league game of the season.

A big thank you has to go to Adrian Shakesheff for coming to umpire the game and Karen Brocklebank-Lambert for running the bench.

Player of the match deservedly went to Paige Taylor with nominations for Micheala Watkins, Meghan Wharton, Verena Schoenfeld, Kerry Haslam, Ali Brocklebank-Lambert and Julie Harrison.