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Hinderwell girl scores for England
TALENTED Hinderwell footballer Beth Mead achieved something her senior England colleagues failed to do – put in a good performance in South Africa.
The 15-year-old has just returned from a five-day training camp with England U17s, where she played two international friendlies against South Africa, who stopped off in England as part of their warm-up for the U17s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago next month.
The first game was played a week last Tuesday which resulted in South Africa running out 4-1 winners.
Beth was picked to start the game and, along with her team-mates, found her opponents a strong and well-drilled team.
The England manager changed almost the whole team for the second half so she could look at as many players as possible.
The second game was played last Thursday and Beth found herself in the starting XI.
South Africa scored midway through the first half and went in at half-time 1-0 up.
The second half saw England make two changes in midfield and straight away, they started to dominate the game with their passing and movement.
Midway through the half, the ball was played out to the left and then played into Beth's feet.
She quickly controlled the ball and turned her defender to smash the ball home with her left foot to equalise.
England made four more changes and kept pressing forward and it was only the brilliance of the keeper that denied Beth her second goal and England's winner as the match ended 1-1.
Beth said she thoroughly enjoyed the whole game and was pleased to have scored another goal for her country.
England's next games are in Belgium, where they are playing three European qualifying games in October.
Beth's now keeping her fingers cross she has impressed enough to be included in the squad.
A week tomorrow, Beth travels to Hull with Middlesbrough Centre of Excellence to play in the first game of the new season, where she is hoping to carry on from where she finished off last season.
In 23 games, Beth managed to score a total of 43 goals which included two that she scored for England U15s against Holland.
This season could turn out to be a busy time for Beth with the fixtures she plays for Middlesbrough giving her the chance to play in Belgium.
There is also the possibility that there could be games against France and the USA in the near future.
She is also studying for her GCSEs at Whitby Community College.
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Weather for Whitby
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South east
