In excellent conditions at Short lane on Saturday, Ashford 1st XI entertained near neighbours Staines in the only Ashford Ladies League game of the weekend. Defender HILARY HULL and midfielder SAM KENDALL were making their first appearances for the Red & Blacks first team squad in 2007, whilst LIV SUTTON in goal was making her second. Ashford Coach BOB THORNALLEY decided that Ashford should play a more attacking format in an attempt to end their four game goal drought. Defender DANI BROUGH was given a more attacking role and sweeper JACKIE PARSONS more freedom to move forward. The new formation seemed to suit Ashford and they matched Staines in all areas of the pitch in the opening ten minutes of play. It was the visitors though who made more attacking moves and secured the first short corner of the game after thirteen minutes of play. Despite Ashford keeper LIV SUTTON saving their first shot, the visitors Captain JO IVE was there to slot home the rebound to put Staines 1-0 up. Ashford weren’t downhearted by the goal though and they constructed many flowing moves of their own, prompted well by DANI BROUGH and JACKIE PARSONS, with the free running LAURA SAMOUEL combining well with fellow strikers SUNNY POTTAY and LIV YOUNG. Despite the good team work and width being created by midfielders STACEY KENWARD and CLAIR BRANT, not many of the forays into the visitor’s goal mouth resulted in many clear cut chances for the Red & Blacks. The play remained very even though and youngster ANNA PROTHEROE was doing well at the back to help thwart some of the Staines quick attacks. It was a good team effort from Ashford though and the score remained at 1-0 to Staines until half time.
After the turn round, Staines got back in to their stride quicker and put the Ashford defence, which was starting to lose some of its cohesion, under pressure for the first part of the second half. The Red & Blacks rallied though and some good interplay and pressure on the Staines goalmouth resulted them gaining a short corner. An excellent routine saw STACEY KENWARD, JACKIE PARSONS, SAM KENDALL and SUNNY POTTAY combing well to move the ball across the Staines goalmouth, but although a goal looked imminent, Ashford were unable to strike the ball home. Not long after the visitors notched their second goal of the game after some messy play in the Ashford goalmouth. Further poor defending by the home team then allowed Staines SUE CHANDLER to get her second goal of the game from an acute angle on the left. Ashford dug in though and JACKIE PARSONS calmly cleared one pile driver of a shot from the Ashford goal line. Near the end of the game, CHANDLER completed her hat trick for the visitors when the Ashford defence were caught flat. A better performance by Ashford, but they will need to be on top form next week when they travel to play fourth placed Teddington.
Team:
O Sutton (GK), D Brough, A Protheroe, S Kendall, H Hull, S Kenward, E Hynes, J Parsons, C Brant, J Smith, (Captain), O Young, L Samouel, S Pottay.
