Ladies 1st XI Match Report
St Albans 3rd XI v Potters Bar Ladies' 1st XI
21 January 2012 | by Caroline Partridge
On Saturday Potters Bar Ladies 1s had a very late pushback at 4.30pm away against St Albans Ladies 3s. Despite the fixture being away the game was actually played on Potters Bar’s home pitch at Dame Alice Owen's School. Before the game the teams were on level points in the league.
Potters Bar started lively, partly because of the cold and windy conditions, and an excellent break in midfield from Jo Spinks saw her out run a number of the St Albans players up the right wing to which she drove in an excellent cross to Lucy Edwards in the circle. She passed a quick ball to Sarah Jowett who took it on the reverse to slip it past the St Albans keeper to give Bar an early lead.
Bar continued to pressure St Albans in the first half and created some great attacks to which the opposition defended effectively. At the other end St Albans also produced good runs into Bar’s defence which were managed and cleared by Esther Strous in centre defence.
At half time Potters Bar had kept their 1-0 lead but knew they needed to work hard to maintain their advantage. Bar won a short corner early in the second half from another great run by Spinks and a change in their normal routine saw a slip pass out to the right to Vanessa Porter who had time to take a great shot on goal to double Bar’s lead.
St Albans piled on the pressure and pounced into Bar’s defensive circle. Despite a number of great blocks from Mo Gough in goal the ball was cleared to the St Albans attacker who flicked the ball into the roof of the net bringing the score to 2-1.
Shortly after, a slight lapse in concentration found Bar defending a couple of St Albans short corners at the other end of the pitch the first of which saw St Albans hit the post and the second of which was not cleared successfully and St Albans were awarded a penalty flick.
Mo Gough in goal kept her cool and correctly guessed which way the striker was going with the ball and cleanly saved the attempt.
This pumped Potters Bar into action and even though they had no substitutions the team worked incredibly effectively all over the pitch. A break in attack found Porter making an excellent run up the right wing, she attacked into the circle and took an excellent strike on goal finding the roof of the net leaving the St Albans keeper no chance to create a save.
Towards the end of the game, Edwards was fed the ball into the circle by Jowett who found herself one on one with the keeper and calmly placed the ball past her. Potters Bar came away 4-1 winners and have kept their 4th place in the league.
Final Score: St Albans 1 - 4 Potters Bar
Goal Scorers: Vanessa Porter (2), Sarah Jowett, Lucy Edwards
Team: Mo Gough, Faye Jowett, Esther Strous, Ashleigh Rouse, Jo Spinks, Caroline Partridge, Shelley Farmer, Laura Armenti, Vanessa Porter, Sarah Jowett and Lucy Edwards
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