Is this now an annual trip down to Lee Valley for Finals Weekend?

Players and fans boarded Roger’s coach (many thanks R.B. Travel) for the trip down to Lee Valley for the Ladies o55s Tier 1 Final in high spirits. A hard fought semi final against Redland meant Kettering probably went in as favourites but with Bournemouth being a completely unknown side no one was taking anything for granted.

Arriving in plenty of time Kettering went through the pre match rigmarole of checking sticks, goalkeepers equipment and face masks before eventually starting their warm up outside the stadium. With games running like clockwork this meant the pitch for the 4pm start was available at 335 so Kettering hurried themselves up to familiarise themselves with the pitch. The opposition had been out long before and the fans did wonder where Kettering were.
One of the big advantages of playing at Lee Valley before is not getting too excited by the pre match Champions League style walk out, waving to the crowd when your name is announced etc. We knew Bournemouth would find this distracting as it is very much not your normal start to a game.
Kettering’s plan was to fly out of the blocks and put Bournemouth under pressure from the start. In a scrappy first quarter this is pretty much what happened. Kettering forced a couple of early shorts. Liane Coleman and Shez Coe having shots saved and despite the quarter ending goalless Kettering looked the most likely to score. With instructions to be a bit more composed the second quarter followed a similar pattern. Helen Keyworth was released by a great through ball by Linzi Webster but was well defended by Bournemouth’s sweeper. As half time approached Mandy Starsmore-Young was adjudged to be fouled in the act of shooting - penalty stroke to Kettering. Up stepped skipper Coe only to put the ball wide. Half time nil nil but Kettering’s defence was totally in control of the sporadic Bournemouth attacks, Mel Linnell, Julia Telford, Sue Russell, Dusty Mason and Pauline Woodthorpe always having the measure of any forays into their half.
Kettering’s task in the third quarter was to be more assertive as Bournemouth were winning too many 50/50s. This seemed to work as an early yellow card for a terrible tackle on Jayne Jackson saw Bournemouth reduced to 10 for five minutes. This gave Kettering the chance to continue to apply pressure and surely a goal would come eventually.
The opening goal came from a short corner that was fired home by the irrepressible Webster on 46mins and the second followed 3 minutes later when Coleman fired home from another short. This gave Bournemouth a mountain to climb whilst simultaneously knocking their belief. The three minutes that followed saw Kettering sit back too much and gave keeper Sarah MacDonald her only really nervous moment as a rare entry into the circle saw the inside of the post hit and the ball roll to safety.
With a very tired Bournemouth now having to chase the game space opened up and Mandy Gatherer waltzed through some tired tackling to commit the keeper but her pass to Pam Farr was just put wide. It was only a matter of time before the third and Helen Keyworth was on hand to flick the ball over a prostrate defender to put the game to bed.

Kettering efficiently ran down the clock to give Bournemouth no chance of a consolation and the final whistle was greeted with wild scenes on the pitch and in the stands. In any final the score is always more important than the performance and Kettering knew that had another couple of gears if the game got close. Kettering have now won two of the three editions of the o55s Cup and will be going for a threepeat next season.

The team would like to thanks all the supporters who made the trip down to London for creating a great atmosphere.