If Leeds’ U19 girls had lined up for Saturday’s ASA National Age Group Plate Final with self-belief to match the structure, energy and resilience that enabled them to breeze through the tournament finale’s earlier rounds, Coach Mark Sutcliffe would have been driving home from Manchester drenched.

As it was, the girls had to endure the frustration of a single goal defeat having withstood six minutes of relentless pressure from a Hucknall team that had arrived from the Midlands well-prepared for battle at both ends of the pool.

Neither of the opponents encountered by Leeds on their journey to the final had an answer to either their rock solid defensive strategy or Emily Pilkington’s right arm.

In the opening game, Northampton made a robust start and caught Leeds napping with a burst of speed and nifty passing sequence that took them ahead after three minutes. But the goal served only as a wake-up call to the Leeds girls, who put five unanswered points on the scoreboard in as many minutes thanks to some great support play from Lauren Richardson, Annabeth Pycroft and Mary Paterson.

A foul on Ellie Sowerby gave her a chance to hit the top corner of the net from the 12m mark, and another fine display of guile and shooting skill from Emily Pilkington and Annabeth Pycroft quickly took the score to 8-1. Northampton rallied towards the end of the match and pulled two goals back, but tenacious defence work by Terri Millington thwarted any further progress. Another effective end-to-end swim and clever finish by Emily Pilkington ended the encounter at 10-3.

Leeds again allowed a quick easy goal to give first blood to opponents Otter Futura in their second qualifying match, but they recovered quickly thanks to wave after wave of clever attacking strategies. Again, Emily Pilkington and Annabeth Pycroft led the charge supported by some intuitive intercepts by Ellie Sowerby; whose reading of the game impressed. A clever break by Giullietta Lane ended with an unstoppable shot by her and took Leeds to 3-1 at the halfway mark. Unrelenting second half pressure from Leeds made life difficult for Otter; who were never allowed back into the match. Goals from Ellie Sowerby and Emily Pilkington allowed Leeds to sail to 5-1 and only a cruel deflected own-goal in the last minute gave Otter a second score.

Emily Pilkington got the final underway by winning the swim-off for the third time in succession, but Leeds lost some of their structure and appeared to be out-muscled in several mid-pool encounters. Though Leeds reached half-time at 3-2 ahead thanks to two goals from Emily Pilkington and another great solo effort from Annabeth Pycroft, the scoreline flattered and would have looked less impressive had it not been for some showcase saves from Sophie Jackson in goal.

Not even a rallying final two minutes and a crossbar-rattling shot from Ellie Sowerby with 3 seconds to go were enough to even the score and get Leeds into a penalty shoot-out in which goalkeeper Sophie Jackson would more than likely have been a safe bet to tips the odds in Leeds’ favour.

Great effort and hard luck girls. There’s always next year!