Woodley United Ladies v Badshot Lea Ladies
Southern Region Women’s Football League Premier Division
It’s always a pleasure to visit the Bulmershe Pavilion and catch up with all involved with Woodley United Ladies. A friendlier club you’d be hard pushed to find. Woodley went into this match aiming to put last week’s heavy defeat behind them and start moving forward after their third place finish in 23/24. Their opponents had a morale boosting draw in their first game of this season, coming from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw with Selsey.
After the thunder and lightning show overnight there were brief doubts about the game going ahead but getting there in bright sunshine and seeing the pitch on arrival, it looked in good condition so any worries were banished. The forecast was for showers after 2pm and the game kicked off with an angry dark sky looming to the left of the pitch.
The match started pretty evenly but after just six minutes the hosts took the lead. A nice move down the left freed Sarah Lawrence whose turn and cross went just behind Chante Bynoe-Gittens and travelled to the right side of the box. Chloe Griffiths picked up the loose ball, knocked it back to Lauren Devlin and her strike looped over Ellie James in the Baggies goal. 1-0
A Katie Hudson free kick from halfway flicked off the head of a Badshot defender and headed towards the corner but James did well to get down and smother. The next chance again came to the home side, Bynoe-Gittens running on to a long punt forward beat the defence just beat James to the ball but her toe poke went just wide of the upright.
The visitors were battling hard and played a lovely one touch move down the left flank involving Alyssa Hall, Deanna Taylor and Dot Usher with the latter looking to get behind the Woodley defence but Charley Evans was there to cover and clear.
At the other end Lawrence again broke free, this time on the right, was covered well but managed to get the ball back to Devlin who sent a teasing curling cross towards the far post where Pippa Humphrey tried to get on the end of it but couldn’t direct her header goalwards.
With around 15 minutes to go in the half, the rain finally came and lashed down for the remaining moments amongst rumbles of thunder.
On the stroke of half time Woodley doubled their lead, Lawrence picking up the ball on the edge of the box with her back to goal, she spun the defender and, after a great first touch to set herself up, slid the ball into the far corner. 2-0
H-T: Woodley United 2 Badshot Lea 0
The visitors started the second half at a much higher intensity and tempo and began to push the home side back. From one attack the ball was cleared out to Holly Montgomery on the halfway line and she tried an audacious lob which only just cleared the bar.
Badshot forward Dot Usher was starting to have a lot of influence after the break hit a shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area after doing well to make space for the shot.
At the other end another Hudson bomb into the box from a free kick was headed clear and picked up by Lawrence, she drifted in from the left, past a couple of challenges before firing a shot which James saved well.
In the 67th minute the Baggies were back in the game. Deanna Taylor picking up a loose ball 25 yards out and lifted her shot over Jo Nowak-Allum in the home goal, finding the roof of the net. 2-1
The visitors tails were now up and minutes later a great run and cross from the right by Shellie Irvine went over the goalkeeper and headed towards goal but Hudson was there to block on the line. With the next chance the visitors made another quick break, Rebecca Munro knocking the ball on only for Hudson to clear. The loose ball fell to Dot Usher who lobbed the ball from 30 yards out, over Nowak-Allum with the ball finding the right top corner. A great strike! 2-2
Badshot were now hungry for the winner and fired another couple of shots from distance one from Usher coming back off the bar and another going well over. On a quick break of their own, Woodley’s Mollie Haines and Sarah Lawrence combined well down the left, eventually knocking the ball into Hollie Barnfield on the edge of the area and she fired a fierce drive past James to regain the lead for Woodley. 3-2
Badshot were now searching again to level and still trying their luck from distance but not quite getting the range right, As sometimes happens, while pushing for an equaliser they were caught on the break, a great run down the right and cut back from Humphries found Lawrence in the box, she sold the defender with a nice drag back before firing past James. 4-2
Virtually straight after the kick off referee Ben Atherton called a halt to proceedings.
F-T: Woodley United 4 Badshot Lea 2
A thoroughly entertaining game especially the second half which could quite frankly, have gone either way after the visitors pulled it back to 2-2. Full credit to them for giving it a go in the second half and for showing a lot of spirit to battle back into the game.
Woodley will be happy for the points and the stand out players for them today for me were Sarah Lawrence, for another all action performance, two goals and two assists. Charley Evans always impresses and today was no different, love her confidence in her own ability when building from the back and doing Charley like things, like running from defence to attack with nobody able to get near her. Finally I thought Pippa Humphrey had a really good game today. Always battling for everything in midfield, regularly joining attacks and a great run and assist at the end.
For Badshot, Dot Usher looks a very good player, always dangerous going forward and took her goal superbly. Deanna Taylor was always in the thick of the action, scoring a cracking goal and I thought Alyssa Hall impressed too. A lot to build on for the Baggies and I’m sure they will get better as the season progresses.
Good luck to both sides for the rest of the season and I think I can guarantee you’ll both be seeing me again in the coming months!
We were lucky enough to have photography legends Andrew Batt and Andy Wicks covering the game today which can’t have been much fun especially in the cloudburst! You can take a look at Andy Wicks’ photo gallery from the game by clicking here.
While you’re enjoying looking at some fantastic action shots from the game, here are some more! Check out Andrew Batt’s photo gallery here.