The ACN Match Review 25/26 – Luton (h) | OneFootball

The lineup

A 4-2-3-1 with Holly Mears continuing in goal in the place of the injured Sarah Quantrill. Hope Strauss and Grace Riglar started in central defence, the latter skipping the side again, while Evie Williams and Millie Daviss came in as the full backs. Eloise King and Freya Symonds were the two central midfielders, and Holly Kennard and Eloise Hall started on the wings, with Tash Snelling leading the line and Ellie Smith behind her as the 10. (The number of new faces in the lineup makes me feel old, but I digress.)

How did we play?

Bravely.

We set out to assert ourselves and dominate the game from the get-go, and did not let up until the full-time whistle. Starting Freya Symonds, an attacking midfielder (wingfielder, even), as the nominal right-sided central midfielder was an aggressive move that spelt out head coach Andy Cook’s intentions, and our 4-2-3-1 often morphed into a 4-1-4-1 with Symonds advancing to join Smith as the second 10. Between Smith and Symonds, the technical quality of City’s midfield was, simply put, absurd. I have lost count of how many times I’ve seen Symonds play a pass that makes me go, ‘How the f*** did she even see that pass, let alone pull it off?’ Our number 18 is a player capable of moments of magic, and one of such moments on Sunday turned into a goal, with Symonds scoring a spectacular effort from range to make it 3-0 (though not quite as spectacular as the one Rachel Lawrence scored against QPR a year and a half ago).

And speaking of magic, Smith was another practitioner. With the technique of a Spaniard, the flair of a Brazilian and the propensity for getting herself into near scrapes of a true English midfielder, Smith is a player I’ve long run out of superlatives for, and it was no surprise that she found herself on the score sheet as well, sliding into a tackle and forcing a turnover that turned into a goal somewhat fortuitously.

If City Women had a playing identity, it might be summarised as relentless pressing to force turnovers in dangerous areas and committing numbers forward to overload the opposition defence. Indeed, both midfielders’ goals follow this playbook almost to a tee, and that was Sunday’s performance in a nutshell – front-footed and assertive, leaving the visitors utterly incapable of coping. Luton Town never got into the game, and with a turnout of 3,251 at Carrow Road, it was a one-sided showing on and off the pitch.

Setting aside my effusive praise for Smith and Symonds for a moment (I’m definitely not biased or anything), the player who imho truly blew Carra’s figurative roof off was Holly Kennard. Words such as incredible, marvellous, electrifying and f***ing goated have been used to describe Kennard (can you guess who my favourite player in the squad is), and her performance on Sunday was a reminder of why. Hugging the touchline, Kennard repeatedly made her signature move of receiving the pass, firing the ball down the flank and exploding forward with a brutal burst of pace, catching up to the ball just as her marker (and said marker’s dignity) was left in the dust. The ease with which she dominated that left wing might be described rather elegantly as sheer f***ing quality, and Luton had no answers whatsoever. It was only fitting that she scored the opening goal and won player of the match.

Other thoughts & takeaways (Yes, I made up a section because I do what I want)

One thing I noticed was that most of our attacks went down the flanks (if I got this completely wrong then precisely 100% of the blame should go to ADHD and 0% of the blame should go to me 👍). Can’t argue with the tactical approach when you’ve won the game 4-0 and the possession stat was something like 80-20, but I do think we could benefit from playing through the centre more, especially considering we’ve got Ellie Smith and Tash Snelling in the centre.

A lot of sequences began with the ball going from the centre backs to Eloise King, and from King to either Holly Kennard or Millie Daviss down the wings, which became a little predictable. Again, can’t argue with the approach when you’ve won 4-0 but it’d make perfect sense to get Smith on the ball more. Kennard’s explosive runs down the left were beyond impressive, but your winger is going to tire herself out if she’s constantly dropping to the halfway line to pick up the ball then carry it all the way up the pitch like a wing back.

This was only the fourth league game of the season and there were five new signings in the lineup so the players are understandably still building their chemistry and technical empathy, and finding a settled lineup can only help partnerships in key positions develop. Snelling and Smith, for example, have a symbiotic on-pitch relationship because they’ve played together countless times and have a great understanding of each other. One particular thing I can think of is getting better at spotting Kennard’s runs and releasing the ball timely. Anyhow, the big question is, of course, is this the season we finally win the league and go up to tier three?

There’s an incredible amount of quality in the squad, and it’s easy to forget that we’ve lost some players who leave behind big shoes to fill – Eloise Morran this summer, Anna Larkins and Rachel Lawrence last summer. Lawrence is the one I really want to circle back to because she was a lot like Kennard – an electrifying winger who could make something happen and change the game in the blink of an eye. Kennard’s importance to the club is self-evident at this point, and if we are going to get across the finishing line this season then one of the questions we will have to figure out the answer to is, what’s the plan if Kennard gets shut down or has to miss a game? I’ve often wondered the same thing about Smith, but now I think it’s probably even harder to figure out a Plan B for Kennard because of the uniqueness of her qualities.

What was the best bit of the game?

Lots of things I enjoyed about Sunday’s game, like the ground, the performance, the vibes, the pint of Guinness I had before kick-off and the absolutely lovely weather (God, I just love living in England), but the best bit for me was watching that electrifying performance from Holly Kennard. Kennard plays football like it’s FIFA on easy mode and all you can do is hold your hands up and say warra player. Though between the four goals I did find a moment to spare a thought for Luton Town’s defenders, poor gals never stood a chance.

What was the worst bit of the game?

That second pint of Guinness I thought about having at half-time but was unfortunately too sensible to have. And the fact that the game was only 90 minutes. And it ended. And there were no direct trains to London Liverpool Street. So I had to change at Cambridge. Which meant I had to spend an extra hour on the road. Two if you count the outbound trip too. And now I have to wait another week to see NCWFC play again. Maybe I should just move back to Norwich.

Anyways…

What was the atmosphere like?

Not bad at all. In fact, it was probably the best atmosphere at an NCWFC game at Carrow Road that I’ve been to, which is encouraging. Hopefully we can keep up the momentum and keep building both the crowd and the atmosphere at Carrow Road.

Hero of the match

Drum roll please…

If you’ve made it this far, it’ll be no surprise that my hero of the match goes to Holly Kennard, whose darting runs forward and general wing play really stood out to me. Special shoutout goes to Ellie Smith and Freya Symonds, who were both their usual brilliant selves.

Summary in five words

Big win at Carra.

Did it in four words because I’m that good. Mic drop.