Ashridge Park Women v North Leigh Ladies
Thames Valley Counties Women’s Football League
Matchday 24 of the season for me and after another late switch in fixtures due to a hectic weekend, it was time for a first visit to Cantley Park to take in Ashridge Park’s first match of the season. With their WFA Cup game being waived due to their opponents not being able to raise a team, and their league game postponed last week for the same reason, it’s been a frustrating wait to get started for Ashridge.
Their opponents North Leigh have had a difficult start following the transition from playing as Procision Oxford Ladies last season. They were looking at this game to provide a morale boosting first win after a disappointing reversal against Wallingford & Crowmarsh Ladies last week.
The game kicked off and the first few minutes were evenly balanced with both sides having half chances but with the home side looking the more dangerous. Ellie Messitt coming close to opening the scoring when running on to a ball over the top and forcing Bryony Bennett in the visitors goal to make an early save.
In the tenth minute the hosts took the lead, Messitt picked up a loose ball on the edge of the area and placed her shot into the bottom right corner giving Bennett no chance. 1-0
North Leigh were looking dangerous down the flanks with both Olivia Day and Mikaela Slaveykova making positive runs just unable to engineer a clear shooting chance.
A lovely ball through the defence from Rachel Stevens picked out the run of Chloe Barton down the right, she hit a first time shot which Bennett managed to get a hand on and the defence were able to clear the loose ball.
The visitors had a good spell with Charley Hamilton instrumental in winning the ball in the middle and setting up chances but found Elena Torroni and Molly Brookes standing strong in the centre, defending well and with keeper Kari Mietle acting as a sweeper.
On the half hour mark the hosts doubled their lead, a nice move down the left side was finished well by Messitt latching on to a superb through ball from Angelina Gokhool. 2-0
The visitors had a great chance after Jasmine Moore beat the offside trap, ran into the area where her shot was blocked by Brookes, the rebound falling to Ebony Partlett but Brookes again managed to get a challenge in to block just as Partlett was about to pull the trigger.
The final chance of the half went to Ashridge, a well-timed run from Ruby Owen picked out by Lucy Thomson’s pass led to another shot on target but going straight at Bennett who gathered well.
H-T: Ashridge Park 2 North Leigh 0
North Leigh started the second half on the front foot, Slaveykova chased after a lost cause down the right, retrieved and sent a cross into the middle which wasn’t cleared by the defence and Bennett, now playing up front, hit a decent effort goalwards which was well saved by Suzana Traguedes now in between the sticks for the hosts.
Ellie Messitt, hunting for her hat-trick, made a fantastic run from the halfway line into the area but good defending from Hayley Bennett meant she couldn’t find the space to get a strike on goal.
Lauren Broadhurst made a good run from midfield before being fouled just outside the area. Messitt knocked the free kick into the box where it was blocked and picked up by Amy Taylor who tried to clear only for Lucy Thomson to steal the ball away from her and plant a shot across the keeper and into the bottom corner. 3-0
Ashridge were now on top and a nice move down the left involving Phoebe Bryant and Lauren Broadhurst, fed the ball on to Amy Linge. She knocked the ball to her right and hit a powerful effort from the edge of the area which was saved well.
A fourth wasn’t long in coming from the home side though, Scarlett Pratt winning a corner on the right which set piece expert Linge fired to the back post and picked out the superb late run of Broadhurst into the area where she headed home with aplomb. 4-0
A lovely pass through the visitors defence by Katie Sayer freed Messitt to run in on goal but her low shot was saved well by the substitute keeper. It wasn’t all one way traffic though as North Leigh, to their credit, kept battling away. Michaela O’Hanlon sprang the hosts offside trap and looked set to shoot but the ball was taken off her foot by some excellent covering from Torroni.
The pace of Sayer and Pratt up front started to trouble the high North Leigh line and a nice pass from Sayer set Pratt free, she tried an early shot which rifled across the face of the goal and wide of the far post.
Again the visitors hit back with chances falling to Bennett and Moore but Traguedes did well to foil their attempts at goal. Ashridge put the icing on the cake in the last few minutes when a long ball over the top from Messitt was chased by Sayer and she just reached the ball before the keeper and managed to prod it past her and into the net. 5-0
F-T: Ashridge Park 5 North Leigh 0
A well-deserved win for Ashridge but North Leigh made them battle every step of the way. There’s more to come from both teams this season and I wish them all the best for this campaign.