Herne Bay Ladies Up To Second

Bay Ladies Up To Second

Anchorians 2nds (1) 2

Herne Bay Ladies (1) 3
Chapman 16, Farrow 46, Foster 80

South East Counties Womens League Division One (East)
Sunday 24th November 2013

by Anthony Deer

This week we travelled to Gillingham to play Anchorians 2nds, who currently sat bottom of the table with seven losses from seven, but this game was anything but a walkover! Missing both goalkeepers today due to work commitments and illness, Carly Farrow donned the gloves for the first half of the match, with Lesley Kay playing between the sticks in the second. The first of many cold days for football but a result today would see us go second.

Today was one of those days and performances that most would like to forget but with the positive result in the end it didn’t matter. It didn’t start too well, after ten minutes we found ourselves one nil down after the ball was lobbed over the out rushing Carly Farrow. From this small set back we dominated the first half up to half time creating more chances to really put this game to bed early on. It only took six minutes after conceding to score our first goal, Emma Brown made a fantastic run to go one on one with the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper came rushing out and took Emma out however the referee played the advantage as the ball fell kindly to Harriet Chapman to tap into the empty net to level the scores. From here we really should have put the game away with copious amounts of missed chances it felt it wasn’t going to be our day. Isabelle Tulett, Kate Foster, Harriet Chapman, Lesley Kay and Emma Brown all had chances, on another day they would have all been converted but today they went wide, over or saved.

Half time came and we needed to regroup, Lesley Kay went in goal second half which meant that Carly Farrow joined the attacking line in the midfield. Straight from the off we won a corner, Carly Farrow whipped the ball in to the front post, the Anchorians keeper called for it but missed it and the ball found itself in the back of the net, this was the luck that we needed and didn’t have in the first half. The second half seemed to take an eternity to complete, as I knew that this was going to be tough and clock watching was high on the agenda. We didn’t play our normal fluent passing game and seemed to panic and give the ball away too easily at times. Unforced errors gave confidence to Anchorians knowing that they just needed that one chance. But the back four stayed strong dealing with everything that was thrown at them. We needed another goal to put this game to bed, once again chances fell to many but some brave goalkeeping kept the one goal advantage. Finally in the 80th minute, from a small amount of pressure from the ladies, starting with a corner, Lauren Wiltshire crossed the ball into the box for Kate Foster to score a bullet header to make it 3-1. But fair play to Anchorians they kept pressing on and were awarded a free kick in a wide area. A hopeful ball was put into the box and straight at Lesley Kay. Unfortunately the ball crept under her legs and into the back of the net. This spurred Anchorians on with five minutes left on the clock they went searching for the equaliser. The last five minutes were the longest ever recorded but once the ball was in the opposition’s corner we ran down the clock for the away win.

A combination of Herne Bay Ladies not performing to their best and a tenacious performance from Anchorians made today’s game a hard fought battle. If chances weren’t being created then we would start to worry. Final ball and finding the net is all that is stopping us from progressing. However that being said, with solid no nonsense defending and pressing high up the pitch the ladies are playing together as a team. With key players out and a hard working Herne Bay team, they got the three points needed to overtake Prince of Wales to move into second place.

Next up is Maidstone Town on Tuesday at Winch’s Field 7:45 KO in the Women’s Ryman’s Cup, a tough game for this new Herne Bay Ladies side, a game we are not expected to win, however, we will give a good account of ourselves, win lose or draw!

Herne Bay Ladies Squad: Carly Farrow, Emma Brown, Rachel Tracy, Beth Nugent, Debbie Blackmore, Kate Foster, Lesley Kay, Charlie Hayes, Sarah Holmes, Harriet Chapman, Isabelle Tulett, Lauren Wiltshire, Bella Smith, Elizabeth Lehan.

Player of Match: Harriet Chapman