A spirited display

Going into this game at Town Fields you wouldn't have backed Doncaster to come close to Chapeltown. The visitors, only narrowly relegated from division 5 last season, arrived on the back of an 11-0 mauling of Wakefield side Slazengers.

The Doncaster line-up saw three players making their debut, Junior Pippa Brocklehurst and club newcomers Sheri Newbury and Emma Hagemann. It also included Steph Lonyon, the 2nd team goalkeeper, playing outfield.

Doncaster won the toss and elected to start, but it wasn't long before Chapeltown showed their experience. It took a few minutes for Doncaster to get the measure of their opponents with some excellent work to plug the gaps and frustrate the visitors attempts to build any form of attack.

Once the home side were able to relax, they started moving the ball around with confidence, and the first half was a very evenly balanced and entertaining spectacle. Both sides showed their mettle and creative ability with some great vision and link up play throughout the half, causing each teams defence to be on their game.

It was no surprise that the first half ended goalless, with both sides cancelling each other out on many areas of the pitch.

As soon as the game resumed for the second half the two sides continued where they left off, with end-to-end play and nail-biting circle action.

Unfortunately for Doncaster the breakthrough came for Chapeltown. A short corner, awarded for a foot in the circle, resulted in a scramble which led to a very sloppy goal with the ball trickling agonisingly over the line.

The second Chapeltown goal was a carbon copy of the first, with yet another short corner leading to a goalmouth scramble before crawling over the line.

Doncaster heads didn't go down and they saw a number of forays into the opposition circle denied a goal only by the Chapeltown keeper and defence managing to deflect the ball either side of the post on a few occasions. On one occasion Chapeltown's defence had to play the ball out from their post and Doncaster were awarded a penalty corner. Agonisingly, the home side were denied by some fantastic goalkeeping with Chapeltown managing once again to clear their lines.

Unlucky Doncaster were caught on the break for Chapeltown's third goal, and although they managed to get numbers back, another goalmouth scramble saw the home sides luck fail them with yet another sloppy goal.

The final five minutes of the game was like a sea of white, with Doncaster throwing everything at Chapeltown. The visitors had no answers to Doncaster's attacks which were coming through the centre and each flank time after time, but their defence remained resilient, and somewhat fortunate. Unfortunately it was too late for the home side and a grateful Chapeltown saw it through to the final whistle.

All in all it was a very spirited display from the ladies and the scoreline in no uncertain terms reflected the game as a whole. Every single player was outstanding for Doncaster and on another day, with a bit more luck on their side, this could have so easily ended in a victory.

Joint players of the match were Pippa Brocklehurst and Steph Lonyon with nominations for Becky West and Paige Taylor. Also, the whole team deserve credit for an outstanding performance.