U11 Girls Pumas-What a season !!

U11 Girls Pumas

Our U11 Girls Pumas have had an outstanding season completing a treble and reaching two national finals to be played in June .

The club have taken the opportunity to publish a little piece on the girls achievements .

Well done girls

What A Season!

From clubless in July to Treble winners in April, this has been a huge achievement for the players and coaching staff, who have received unwavering support from the parents.

The team moved to AFC Stoneham in July, who gave us the opportunity to make a new home in a positive, respectful and established football environment. We joined a club that shared the ambitions of the team, and offered a pathway to the Junior Premier League, the Ladies First Team and the motivation to follow in the footsteps of female players who have gone on to play for Southampton FC.

We expanded the coaching staff from John Barnes and Matt Salmon to include John Bushnell and Nick Scutt, to broaden the footballing knowledge and depth within the set-up. This improvement built on our culture of consistency, with 12 of the players having played together for over 2 years, and has been a vital part of our continued success.

On the pitch our success has been measurable in not just results, but most importantly the development of players. Players have become genuinely multi-functional, often switching positions mid-game to execute tactical changes that won us numerous games. We have had to dig deep to cope with the physicality of older players, but we are blessed with some incredible attacking talent who have created and scored wonderful goals, and a core of intelligent and competitive players which means we don't concede often, and this has seen us through.

We started the league season with a 2-2 draw with eventual runners-up Portsmouth in the Community, who went on to challenge us all season and we enjoyed some wonderful footballing battles. Two great teams playing the right way. We lost our first game of the season vs AFC Stoneham Tornadoes, a brilliant game and advert for the talent at the club. Undoubtedly players from across both teams will represent the club in the JPL and beyond.

The final three months has been our biggest challenge, but also our most successful period. We lost players to injury, illness and representative football, yet still kept securing results. Fundamentally we play good football and players put the team first, so the loss of one has been compensated by the introduction of another. Football is a squad game and everyone has had to sacrifice themselves at some point for the collective.

Overcoming this challenging period turned into a season defining week for the players.

On the 19th of March we travelled to the New Forest for the Hampshire Futsal tournament, and secured the trophy and a trip to regionals with a perfect record of three wins, with no goals conceded. Beating a team with professional coaching staff is always a pleasing achievement too, especially as it takes us to a Regional and subsequent National final.

Just 24 hours later we travelled to Winklebury to play the Hampshire Cup Final. The team was aiming to win their third consecutive Hampshire Cup, and did so with a 4-0 win, secured with 3 goals in 5 minutes in a period of wonderful passing football.

On the 26th we travelled to AFCP in what unbeknownst to us, was our opportunity to win the league with 2 games to go. Having enjoyed a team trip to watch England, the players were slow to start and struggled to overcome a strong outfit. However, the team stuck together and turned the game around in the second half to secure the league title and Treble for AFC Stoneham.

The season has been long but the team is already moving into tournament mode. Winning at AFC Wimbledon and finishing runners-up at the ESF tournament means we now have two national finals to look forward to in June and a trip to St Georges Park.

The season hasn't been without challenges but we stick together and put the team first, and look forward to competing for more trophies this summer.

A special thank you to all the players (in alphabetical order) - Aaliyah Fleming (goal of the season vs AFC Whiteley), Abbi Jervis (consistently game-changing), Abbie Selway (Hants Cup Semi Final hat-trick), Amelie Willsher (most improved player), Erin Salmon (scorer in 12 consecutive games from midfield), Lauren Richmond (top goalscorer), Layla Etherington (hat-trick in our title decider), Layla Neil (perfect penalty save record), Martha Barnes (best winning goal of the season vs Stubbington), Nancy Scutt (for 3 months un-subbable), Phoebe Bushnell (MoM Hants Cup Final), Roxy Martin (long shot specialist and Rock) and Sophie Addicott (typifies coolness and playing from the back)

#upthepurps