On a wet and overcast Tuesday evening amidst swarms of carnivorous Canterbury Midgies, yellow played blue for the U13 Risers Derby Shield! 

The first half was a closely contested affair with both teams pressing hard to win the midfield battle and carve out decent goalscoring opportunities. Kai and Larissa intercepted every attack while Ella and Izzy chased down loose balls. But despite their hard work, the Yellow shirts struck first, with an excellent long-range strike that Ruby struggled to see until the last minute through the press of bodies in front of her goal. On loan number 14, Sophie, had some excellent touches in the midfield and played some great balls forward to Sunee in attack. But the tight yellow-shirted defence, through Jess and Demi, swarmed and harried and no breakthrough was made. Half time arrived and it was 1-0 to the Yellows.

Moments later the teams were back in action and the Yellows made the better start, with two excellent quickfire goals putting them 3-0 ahead. But there's something special being built among our blue-shirted players – there's an indomitable spirit that never gives in, no matter what the scoreline says. And that spirit was summed up by the team captain, Larissa, last Sunday when she said “We could lose 100–0 and I still wouldn't want to play for any other team than this one!” Our brave blues fought back… 

Second half brought a few changes (thanks to Connie ,the Yellows’ keeper, for being a great sport and joining in a player swap…) With Ruby now playing in an advanced role and Aaliyah's darting runs down the wing, Sunee collected the ball, forged ahead and fired past the keeper to make it 3–1. A consolation goal many thought. But there was more to come. Polly seemed to appear all over the pitch, a tackle here, a pass there, and suddenly Sunee was through again, firing low and hard to make it 3–2. The light was fading fast, the whistle waiting to be blown at any moment as just a few seconds later Sunee grabbed her first ever hat -trick for the Risers blues, and suddenly it was 3–3. Now there was only one team on the pitch with the belief that this still wasn't over, and yet more pressure and direct football created one final chance, which Sunee fired narrowly past the right-hand upright. As the whistle finally blew, both sets of fans knew they’d seen a cracking game with talent aplenty in both squads. For the Blues, a fantastic team effort, and the honours shared... for this year at least.

Keith