Sunday 8th March 2015 saw Gone Wild take on Peebles in their quarter final match of the Scottish Youth Cup. The coaches knew that this would be the girls toughest game to date but were confident that the squad’s skill and talent would push them towards a win.

The game started off well for both teams with the score remaining even until the last two minutes of the first quarter with Gone Wild finally breaking Peebles centre pass and converting from it. Erin Wood (GS) and Mia Rooney (GA) worked well together in the attacking circle to ensure the turnover was converted. They then quickly scored from their own leaving the quarter time score at 5-3 to Gone Wild.

No changes were made going into the second quarter as the girls were coping well with the height and aerial game that Peebles were playing. Iona Greig (WD) did her best to keep the tall (at least 5ft 10) Peebles WA out of the game. This was an evenly matched quarter with no breaks in Centre pass meaning that Gone Wild kept their 2 goal lead (12-10).

Changes going into the third quarter were Lia McGrath back to GS, Nicola Cosgrove-Clark onto WA and Catherine Laverty onto WD. This was to be Gone Wild’s best quarter of the game with the defensive trio of Anna Sherry (GK), Holly MacPhail (GD) and Catherine Laverty (WD) shutting down the Peebles attack to win numerous interceptions. This allowed Rachel McAuley and Nicola Cosgrove-Clark to bring the ball up to the attacking circle providing flawless feeds into Mia and Lia. The quarter score was 8-6 to Gone Wild (20-16).

It was clear from the first whistle of the final quarter that Peebles meant business and their pressure in defence proved too much for the young Gone Wild squad. Peebles had an obvious height advantage and they used this to ensure that every pass and shot made by Gone Wild were pressured. This meant that Gone Wild’s error rate in this quarter was too high to maintain their lead with the guests winning the quarter 8-3 and taking the game by just 1 goal (23-24 Peebles).

Although this was Gone Wild’s first loss of the season they should be incredibly proud of reaching the quarter final and for the level of skill and talent on display throughout the match. They coped extremely well with playing against such tall opponents and will most definitely learn from the experience.

Squad: Amber Harvey, Anna Sherry, Catherine Laverty, Erin Wood, Holly Brown, Holly MacPhail, Iona Greig, Lia McGrath, Mia Rooney, Nicola Cosgrove-Clark and Rachel McAuley.