Newbury Ladies Football
Match Report -- Season 2017-18
Southern Region Women's Football League Premier Division
Sunday 28th January 2018
Newbury Ladies 1st 0 Winchester City Flyers 2
The First Team of Newbury Ladies FC hosted Winchester City Flyers in the Premier Division of the Southern Region Women’s League. The visitors from Winchester kicked off the match, but it was Newbury Ladies that went straight onto the attack when captain Caz Harkness played a good through ball into the path of Gemma Burnett. As she was about to enter the Winchester area, she was fouled and brought down and so Newbury had an early free kick in a very dangerous position. Bex Walker took the direct set piece and she saw her shot get up and over the wall and just as it was dipping under the crossbar, the Winchester keeper got there to produce a finger tip save over the bar. Newbury had their first corner of many in the opening period, but they were unable to find a breakthrough. Some good Newbury pressure brought several corners in quick succession, as Winchester were penned back in their own half. A Winchester defender did have to block and clear on the goal-line, when the keeper was beaten, after Jana Penazova had struck towards goal from one corner. But again, Winchester had escaped.

Just prior to half time, Winchester were able to make a couple of forays into Newbury’s final third, but their attempts at goal were fortunately off target. As the first half drew to a close, Newbury were not quite as dominant as they had been in the opening period and the match was fairly even, with both sides cancelling each other out and the score-line remained goal-less at the break.

The second half started in a high tempo, end-to-end fashion, with the first strike for Newbury’s Tracey Beales, after a good lay off by Gemma Burnett, but the effort was high and wide. Then Winchester broke, but shot straight at Newbury’s goalkeeper and this was followed by an immediate Newbury break, which saw Burnett attempt a lobbed effort, which just saw the Winchester keeper able to scramble back and collect, much to her own relief. From that goal kick, Winchester’s keeper sent the ball straight down field, which one of their strikers did well to flick on. The ball was eagerly latched onto by her strike partner, as she raced through a gap in the Newbury back-line to finish the one-on-one chance very coolly for one nil. With barely four minutes on the second half clock, this was not the start that Newbury had envisaged.

Matters went from bad to worse for Newbury inside another six minutes, when they fell two goals behind after a poor clearance then saw a lack of reaction. The half cleared ball was picked up by a Winchester midfielder and her whipped cross was swung in behind a stationary defence. Another on-rushing midfielder supplied a first time finish to score Winchester’s second goal of the game and leave Newbury with work to do. Time was still on Newbury’s side however and they started to make substitutions in attempt to shift the momentum of the match back in their favour. But unfortunately they had little impact, as there was no real rhythm to their play. Winchester’s game management was excellent and they defended their two nil lead superbly. If anything, as the match drew to a close, it was Winchester that were the more the threatening in attack. Nicky Isted in Newbury’s goal, was called upon twice in the closing stages and she made excellent saves both times.

Winchester had a cutting edge to their play, but the Newbury attack in contrast was blunted. It had been a frustrating day for the home side, whereas the visitors saw out a good victory and collected the three points, which closed the gap between the two teams to just two points, although Newbury Ladies remain in third position in the Southern Region Premier Division table, for now.

The Player of the Match for Newbury Ladies FC was goalkeeper, Nicky Isted.

Match report by Sue Hewett

Players: Nicky Isted, Sam Atkins, Lauren Hanson, Leanne Saunders, Ayala Truelove, Jana Penazova, Caz Harkness (Capt), Shelley Forster, Tracey Beales,Gemma Burnett, Bec Walker, Becky Anderson, Kendall Gilmour, Nicole Beesley, Maria Rodrigues, Nicole Pearce.
Referee: Aaron Baker
Goal scorers
Player of the match
Nicky Isted
Next fixture

Southern Region Premier

League season closed
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