A fantastic opening game of the season for the Panthers.

Raunds won the toss and had a shot at goal in the early minutes of the game, well saved by David. Shortly followed by a powerful corner from Raunds, which was on target, but again well saved by David.

The game flowed up and down the pitch with great tackling from Henry, Chloe & Spencer to keep the pressure on.

A throw in from Chloe gave Louis the opportunity to have a shot at goal, it was on target but saved by their keeper.

Adam intercepted a corner, made a good pass to Louis, who in turn passed to Spencer. Raunds managed to force a corner, which was stopped by Spencer.

Raunds then had another shot on goal forcing David to use his goal keeping skills again. This was immediately followed by another attack, but due to pressure from Chloe and another save from David, David was able to pass the ball down the field to allow Henry to put the ball in the back of the net for the Panthers.

The Panthers now had their confidence back and the last few minutes of the first half saw fantastic pressure form Chloe & Spencer. Raunds corner was well intercepted by Henry with a fine pass to Adam, who turned and ran with the ball, passed to Louis who took a shot at goal just off target.

Half time changes saw Flynn, Oliver & Will replace Spencer, Chloe & Henry.

The opening minutes of the second half saw Raunds intercept the kick off, with an off target shot at goal.

Seconds later Adam made a fantastic tackle to win the ball, pass to Louis who made a great shot, just off target. Will then got stuck in and took the ball, passed to Adam, Raunds attacked, but the Panthers forced a corner. Louis took the corner, just off target but forced another. This time the Raunds keeper saved it.

The Raunds keeper gave a powerful kick back up the field which led to them scoring.

Adam came off, allowing Henry back onto the field.

Will produced some great tackling with a pass to Henry resulting in another Panthers goal from Louis.

Some fantastic defending from Oliver & Flynn kept Raunds from scoring and allowed Louis another couple of shots at goal and a great shot from Henry went over the cross bar.

Raunds were awarded a free kick, a touch from Oliver prevented their shot at goal from being on target. More tackling from Flynn, Oliver & Henry forced a throw in, with Henry taking another shot at goal, just off target. Louis was on the receiving end of the ball and scored his second goal of the match for the Panthers.

The last few minutes of the game saw more excellent teamwork, unfortunately Raunds managed to slip the ball past David to score the final goal of the match.

All in all, a wonderful effort from the Panthers, who showed great determination and team work throughout the match.

Coaches note:

Well done to all involved as all the children gave a 100%. We couldn’t ask for more.

Thank you to Karen Mclean for the match report.