It was to be a day for the underdogs and whilst the demise of the Manchester United and Chelsea cup dreams may have brought cheers from most (but not all ) Ducklington fans, Ducklingtons defeat at the hands of Tower Hill came as a cruel blow.

Ducklington took to the pitch missing there first choice keeper Viv Hughes and mid field dynamo Francis Hook. A restructuring of the team saw skipper Katie Weaving in goal who, it has to be said on past ‘stand in’ performances looks at home in goal. (More so than Rio Ferdinand for Manchester United!)

The opening spell of play saw a stalemate situation, with Katy Hoare, Emily Gee and Abbey Lloyd putting up a solid defence but Ella Butler, Laura Jones and Lauren Major meeting similar opposition at the other end. It wasn’t until the thirteenth minute of play that there was a first real attempt on goal. The chance came from a well worked build up from Ella Butler and Katy Hoare setting up Lauren Major whose shot was deflected into the right hand side netting for a corner.

A minute later and Katy Hoare, seeing the visiting keeper off her line, took a shot from just inside the visitors half. The Tower Hill keeper who was clearly carrying a leg injury regained her ground and pulled of a critical save. Tower Hill responded well and in the sixteenth minute sent the ball across the face of the Ducklington goal their striker wasting no time in capitalising on a defensive blunder drilling it home and taking the visitors to a goal lead.0-1

In the twentieth minute Ducklington saw a golden opportunity go begging as Ella Butler and Laura Jones went for the same ball on the edge of the area and the resulting scrambled effort sent wide of the goal. The remaining minutes of the half saw Ducklington pile on the pressure, winning a succession of corners but failing to capitalise and the whistle drew an end to a disappointing half for Ducklington.

The second half started with Tower Hill in control forcing saves from Katie Weaving in the third and fifth minutes. The Ducklington defence were put under pressure with Abbey Lloyd, Holly Keylock and Katy Hoare seeing off a series of attacks. Seven minutes in and Sophie Pymm and Ella Butler built up a strong attack only to be dispossessed by the ever present Tower Hill No.4 who cleared the ball albeit narrowly missing her own goal- a visible sigh of relief on her face. Twelve minutes gone and Sophie Pymm’ s shot was saved and two minute later the Tower Hill keeper palmed Lauren Majors shot wide of the goal.

Then caught on the break in the sixteenth minute Tower Hill were let through and their second goal came on a one on one with Ducklington stand in keeper, Katie Weaving.0-2

Ducklington nearly managed to claw a goal back in the eighteenth minute after a well worked build up between Lauren Major and Katy Hoare but the shot was saved.

It was not to be Ducklingtons day and Tower Hill left the pitch at the final whistle deserved victors.

An uncharacteristic lack lustre performance by the Ducklington players was acknowledged by all when, for the first time in history, the player of the match award stayed in the Managers bag.

A wake up call Ducklington -big training night on Thursday, EARLY NIGHT NEXT FRIDAYand (optional) porridge on Saturday morning!