Tullet Trumps Prince

Prince of Wales (0) 0

Herne Bay Ladies (3) 4
Tullet 20, 22, 60 Chapman 25,

South East Counties Womens League: League Cup 2nd Round
Sunday 8th December 2013.

by Anthony Deer

Without a game last week, Herne Bay Ladies were buzzing to get back on the field. To add to what was already a big cup game we were travelling to play Prince of Wales who recently have beaten us in the league 2-0. As most teams know, this was going to be a tough game, with everyone available apart from the suspended Vicky Holness, whose last match suspension was today, we were at our strongest! With a side to side slope, the pitch wasn’t at its best, but knowing which areas to hit, we would be successful in our approach. Certain players were given specific roles and responsibilities and executed them to the letter.
The first half saw Herne Bay ladies take control of possession early on, with some good runs from Harriet Chapman and Isabelle Tullet causing all sorts of problems for the POW defence. Only the offside flag stopped us from getting into the final third to test the goalkeeper. As like previous games, patience was needed and within a spell of five minutes we found ourselves 3-0 up. On the 20th minute Isabelle broke the offside flag and raced through to calmly strike the ball past the POW keeper to make it one nil. She repeated this feat two minutes later as again she broke the offside trap and once again put the ball past the keeper. Before we could finish celebrating, another through ball for Isabelle who unselfishly passed the ball to Harriet Chapman who put the ball in to the net to make it three nothing! No one at the time could believe that we scored three goals in the matter of five minutes but from here we contained POW who were increasingly getting frustrated for the rest of the half.
Half time came and the message was not to concede in the second half. Quite a simple message but a message that was understood by everyone. POW had quite a lot of possession in the second half but couldn’t break down the Herne Bay defence of Emma Brown, Rachel Tracy, Beth Nugent and Debbie Blackmore with Charlie Hayes playing a role for 90 minutes that stopped any serious attack from the POW forward line! With POW trying to find the next goal, gaps started to appear and we found ourselves getting in more than we needed to, but to make sure we had the game won we needed that fourth goal. That came once again from the never stopped working Isabelle Tullet, whose third goal for her hat trick was her best of the three that she scored. From a tight angle she hit the ball which hit the underside of the bar and went in! At this point POW knew that this was the final blow and although they did not give up, the back four dealt with everything they threw at them.
I always mention the same players week in week out, but some players go unmentioned, today Kate Foster and Charlie Hayes worked their socks off for the team today. Kate was kicked all over the place but still managed to keep going and help set up chance after chance. Charlie was given a job to do and didn’t stop working until it was complete. Lesley Kay back after injury kept calm under pressure and played the right ball at the right time, she even had to move back in defence when Rachel Tracy picked up an injury. But today’s player of the match and was well deserved was Isabelle Tullet who didn’t stop working for every minute on the pitch that she was on there.
A good cup run again would be good, but we will take each game as it comes, we have depth and quality in the squad now and it is now getting more difficult each week to pick a team as whoever I choose only strengthens us. Our target is to progress through the leagues but having a cup run will just improve confidence throughout. With Vicky Holness available to play now, picking a starting eleven is proving to be difficult as I know that all the girls are desperate to play!
Next up is Maidstone United in the Women’s Ryman’s Cup on Thursday at Winch’s Field 7:45pm KO. Although we want to win every game that we play, this will be a big test for our newly formed squad of players. Then we welcome Rusthall to Winch’s Field on Sunday to begin our defence of the KCFA Women’s Plate 2:00pm KO

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

Player of Match: Isabelle Tullet