Nottingham Forest 1 – 3 Southampton
Grange Park – Goalscorers; Trialist 1, Ella Morris, Lucia Kendall
Last Sunday, Saints travelled to Nottingham for their first Pre-season friendly of the 23/2024 season. Saints, for the first time was repping their new away strip, which I must say looks really nice! Fans were allowed to be in attendance for this game and surprisingly, a fair load of us made the trip, I’d say there was near enough the same amount of us as there was Forest fans.
Friendlies are commonly known as the games where managers like to try new and different things, by experimenting, with different styles/formations and I can tell you, we were not disappointed. I don’t think any of us were quite expecting the levels we saw from the girls; it was if they hadn’t been away from the pitch for 2 months. Very special mentions have to go to, our Milly, some of the things she was doing on the pitch were outrageous. Also, Ella Morris... take a bow, the 2nd goal was pure magic, and is one I have kept on repeat ever since it was uploaded
The things that impressed me most from the game were the slickness in passing, the speed and fluidity of the game, as well as communication seemed to have upped. Although, that could have been a bi product of playing in a ground that felt exceedingly familiar to the girls old home, Snows Stadium.
Seeing the lineup as we were driving to the ground, we were shocked to see that there were not just one, but 4 trialists that were in the team which got us all excited and wondering who they may be. Boy did we have reason to be excited too!
On another note, unfortunately this week's pre-season friendly against Oxford has now been cancelled. It has been replaced with a friendly next week against Crystal Palace but is set to be behind closed doors. Sad times, as even more frustratingly there will be no media coverage of the game by either club.
First half
The first half started well and within the first minute of the game, I think every one of us Saints fans turned to each other and said, “Yep she can stay”! This was about Trialist 1, she was a forward and showed everyone that she means business when she plays. She was fast, skilled and looked strong. Talking about the trialist being strong, it was a very strong start to the game
for us, with chances coming forward just not meeting the net. Forest came at us and opened the scoring, which us supporters thought it shouldn’t have stood as Raff was founded in the build up. Forest 1 Southampton 0.
This goal is what kicked us into gear than we already were, seeing Lexi produce a brilliant ball into the area which connected with Trialist 1, who was able to score and put us level. Things started to liven up and grow just before the end of the first half, Ella Morris did what she does best, running it down the wing at speed and past 3 Forest players, then smashing it in with power from an angle!!
Good first half and 2-1 up, what better way to go into the second half
Second half
We saw 4 changes going into the second half, Lexi, Trialist 1, Ella and Raff all came off the pitch to make way for Wilko, Emily Kraft, Meg W and Trialist 3. This half started
with just as much energy as the first, the quick football had continued. Lucia opened the scoring this half by dinking the keeper which bounced its way into the back of the net. Forest did not give up however, fighting back and pressing us as much as they could.
Molly Pike come on the pitch, our first time seeing her play and she looked very strong on the ball! It was weird though as Molly came on, but Alice made way for her by going into the right back position. Not sure how I felt about that one, but the team know what they’re doing! Megan
Collett took a strike from range which saw the Forest keeper having to stretch to save it. Would have been cracking if that went in!
The last shot of the game came from another new signing, Emily Kraft, Lucia headed a ball down to the feet of Emily, she took a shot, but the ball went flying just past the post.
A good competitive game overall which gave the girls some much needed game time, it was nice to see and be able to watch potential new signings in the 4 trialists that were used. It was great to see live football again and I’m excited for the start of the season after watching this match.
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