Cara’s Pride Playing For Her County
I had an amazing day with my team mates when we went to Doncaster to play for Lancashire FA in a brilliant Player Development Centre tournament that I will never forget! On a Sunday morning I normally have a bit of lie in, unless Match of the Day's on, but not this morning. I woke up at 7 o'clock extremely excited because, guess what, I was playing for Lancashire in a PDC tournament! I got dressed into my very smart azure blue Lancashire kit and went downstairs for breakfast. I wasn't at all hungry, like normal on a match day, but I did manage to have a small bowl of muesli. At 8 o'clock we went to pick up my friend Izzy and her dad. We chatted excitedly all the way down to the Lancashire F.A headquarters in Leyland, where we were to get on the double decker coach that was going to take us down to Doncaster. I felt quite relaxed until I looked at the clock and it had been 1 hour 30mins, and it only took 1 hour 40mins to get there! I quickly put my shin pads on and tied my laces. We’d arrived! I cleared the steamed up windows of the coach, and I was amazed! There were about seven other coaches already there and I couldn’t wait to get off the coach. We went into the school where we were playing to be greeted by loads of girls from all over the North – Doncaster, Newcastle, Nottingham. We still had a little time before we needed to go meet in the changing rooms so went outside to see what was happening. I could see some women playing football in red kits, I went and took a closer look and I noticed that they were Doncaster Belles, the women’s super league team! Finally it was time to get changed in the changing rooms where the manager of team gave us a little chat saying that we just need to enjoy ourselves. Soon after my friend Izzy received the ball and ran and ran and ran until shooting into the back of the net. We added a third goal and the match finished 3-1. Once again we were all delighted and so was our manager. We had a bit of a wait before our next match so we went inside and had a little something to eat, I had ran my socks off and I could feel a slight pain on my right groin, but it was nothing much. We started our last match when we were playing Newcastle FA. They were a very big and strong side with lots of tall girls and we went two goals behind to start with before pulling one back. It was about half way through the match when I was playing on the left wing , when suddenly I felt my groin; it was really sore, and I knew that I would have to go off. The matched finished 3-1 to Newcastle. We were all a bit disappointed but we didn’t let just one result ruin our fantastic day. We went back to the coach with massive smiles on our faces. I know I will never ever forget the magical and amazing experience!
Cara Milne-Redhead (Aged 10)
Finally we were allowed onto the pitches. We did some stretches, and our coaches told us how we would be doing things today. Our manager was Owen Coyle, who’s Dad used to manage Burnley and Bolton. The matches were 25 minutes one way and we were playing Nottinghamshire FA first. Despite this being our first competitive game together we all started off really well with us scoring first. Next I did a pass through to another girl who also scored. The match finished 2-0 to us and all of the girls were really happy. Our manager was really pleased with us all and said that we had all played brilliantly. We had a match straight after so Owen didn’t have very long to talk to us. We were playing Doncaster Belles in our next match and we started the match with a little less energy as we had in the previous match and went a goal behind. However we battled back and soon equalised when I hit a long through ball to a girl called Rebecca who calmly slotted it into the back of the net.
Lancashire F.A.
Cara plays for Burnley FC Ladies Under 11’s and took part in the Player Development Centre Tournament that was played on 24th February 2013
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