The June long weekend saw the Southern Tablelands Football Association Under 12 Girls team travel to Bathurst to play in the Football NSW Under 12 Run Country Cup.
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The STFA Under 12s' first game was against Dubbo on the Saturday morning, and they gave a good account of themselves even though the Dubbo Team were much bigger and faster.
The first 15 minutes of the game were an even encounter, however in the fifteenth minute the STFA side found their defence under pressure and could not clear the ball the ball from their goal mouth; soon after, Dubbo were able to scramble home a goal.
Five minutes later, the strong Dubbo attack forced the STFA team back into their penalty and again were able to slot a goal and take a 2-0 lead in the half time break.
The second half saw the Tablelands side regroup and take the game to their bigger opponents with many fast raids into Dubbo's half, but the smaller STFA players were unable to get past Dubbo's back four. The final score remained 2-0 to Dubbo.
Their second game of the day was against Eurobodalla. It was an even game that saw end-to-end soccer that had the spectators on their feet.
Both teams had chances to score, but in the 20th minute of the game STFA striker Lilly Skelly received the ball wide on the left wing and was able to get in behind Euro's defence and did not miss with her left-footed strike. T
he second half saw both sides get into a position to score but the final was a 1-0 win to the STFA team.
Sunday morning saw the team play Bathurst in their third game with a heavy fog blanketing the grounds.
The STFA had to defeat Bathurst to become runners-up, and at the same time, Bathurst needed to win and hoped Eurobodalla defeated Dubbo so they could lift the Cup.
They came out playing aggressive soccer and were in front after three minutes.
The STFA team took the game to the home team, and in the 15th minute had four corners in a row, but like Dubbo, Bathurst had strong defenders and they were unable to net an equaliser even though they played well until half time.
The second half saw Bathurst again raid the STFA side, who stood strong, but in the 10th minute Bathurst put the game out of STFA's reach with their second goal to give them a 2-0 win.
The Tablelands girls can hold their heads high as they gave away a lot in size to the other teams when you consider that they are made up of girls between nine to 11 and come from all local clubs.
The team's next games are at the end of the month when they travel to Forbes to play in that Associations Tournament. They will be a better team having made a step up in competition over the weekend.
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