Hinckley Borough Diamonds proudly sponsored by Impact Retail, MJB Motors and CPS group welcomed Sileby Panthers to Weavers Park in the 2nd round of the county cup.

Sileby kicked off and straight away showed they were full of intent, beating the Diamonds to every ball and testing the resilience of Alara, Emily, and Bethan at the back. The Sileby midfield who were physically strong were winning the battle and causing problems for Lacey, Ellie O and Violet. The diamonds were really struggling to get anything going and the Sileby pressure was causing the Diamonds girls to panic and rush.

To the Diamonds' credit, they rode the storm and in the 10th minute Amelia managed to spin her marker and release Violet down the left wing, Violet got to the byline and cut the ball back, and with the goal gaping a wicked bobble took the ball off Ellie O's foot for the first clear cut chance of the game.

5 minutes later with the Diamonds still not getting to grips with the opposition they were deservedly behind when the hunger of the Sileby players again found them first to the ball and when the striker found herself inside the box unmarked, she stroked the ball past stand-in keeper Lexi U.

The diamonds brought on Jayla, Poppi, Lilly B, and skipper Millie to try and get a foothold in the game, and have something to build on. Sileby though were relentless in their pressure and the Diamonds went into the halftime break extremely fortunate to still be in the cup tie.
HT0-1

At halftime Lilly B bravely took the gloves of Lexi U who despite being ill had a good half in the goal. The girls were told at half-time that the very least expected of them all was to run and compete with their opposition and match the hunger of the other team. The result didn't matter but the lack of effort and poor performance did matter.

The second half kicked off and the brutally honest teamtalk seemed to have had an impact with the diamonds starting to apply some pressure of their own, Lacey was winning more of the ball and Violet and Millie were forcing the wide midfielders back while Amelia and Lily S were stretching the defence with their skill, pace and power. Now we had a cup tie.

Ellie O, Lily S and Amelia all had good half chances but the Sileby Keeper was in inspired form, while a series of corners had Sileby pinned in the Diamonds just couldn't find the finish to ring them level.

Sileby were not taking the pressure lying down and were more than willing to commit players forward when they could, these counter-attacks were bringing the best out of Bethan, Alara and Emily and Lily B in goal who pulled off a couple of good saves. The diamonds were somehow still in the game and then from a goal kick Ellie O put the defender under pressure this resulted in Lily S picking up the ball beating a defender and when her shot was spilled Amelia tapped in the rebound to make it 1-1 with minutes left of the tie and take the game to penalties.

And so to penalties ....
Sileby took the first kick and scored with the ball bouncing in off the bar 0-1

Amelia then stepped forward and despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball her shot was too powerful and went in 1-1

Lilly B then became a hero with a huge save saving with her legs down to the right to give the diamonds the advantage. 1-1

Violet confidently stroked her left foot penalty into the corner to give the Diamonds an advantage. 2-1

The third sileby penalty although well-struck missed the target. 2-1

Next up was Bethan she put the ball on the spot took 5 steps back and smashed an unstoppable penalty into the top corner 3-1

Sileby then scored their fouth penalty 3-2

Vice-captain Alara then took the long walk from the halfway line put the ball on the spot stepped back, took a deep breath, and side footed the ball into the right-hand corner suddenly the girls were off racing to Alara and Lilly B to congratulate them 4-2

The diamonds were nowhere near their best today but they did just enough to stay in the game and got their rewards for a much improved 2nd half. A performance of grit and effort saw them through today GOTG Lilly B