Injury and illness again took their toll on the Ashford Ladies1st XI squad for the away game against fellow strugglers Hampstead & Westminster 2nd XI on Saturday. Both Coach HELEN THORNALLEY and midfielder STACEY KENWARD had to withdraw late in the week due to injury and illness respectively. However, the Red & Blacks were very pleased to welcome back stalwart midfielder JACKIE PARSONS who had recovered from a recent back injury and she took over the sweeper role for the first time in her Ashford career. Welsh midfielder SAM KENDALL was also back for Ashford, whilst young striker OLIVIA YOUNG was a late call up to the squad.
Due to the game before Ashford’s running late, the 3pm start was delayed and the whole match needed to be played under lights. Play from the start was very even, with Ashford midfield dynamo NICKY DALY doing several penetrating runs, which caused havoc in the home teams defence. Likewise Hampstead & Westminster had a couple of good attacking moves, but debutant sweeper JACKIE PARSONS calmly cut out most of their threatening moves, ably assisted by defender DANI BROUGH. After eleven minutes of play, the home team opened the scoring from a short corner, when a fairly harmless strike from the edge of the circle bounced awkwardly on the water based pitch and fooled Red & Blacks keeper LEANNE SERGEANT to give Hampstead & Westminster the lead 1-0. After the goal the play continued to be fairly even and whilst Ashford were creative in midfield, it was not leading to many chances in the circle or them getting any accurate shots on goal. In the closing quarter of the first half the home side piled on the pressure and it took a couple of acrobatic saves from keeper LEANNE SERGEANT to keep the score at 1-0.
The second half started with further stout defending by Ashford’s new sweeper JACKIE PARSONS, and another brilliant point blank save from LEANNE SERGEANT kept the score down to 1-0. In reply the Red & Blacks forwards LAURA SAMOUEL, SUNNY POTTAY and substitute OLIVA YOUNG were combining well, but it was midfielder NICKY DALY who created the best chance. After seventeen minutes of play the home side went further ahead with a fine cross from the left being deftly met on the right and strongly hit home. Ashford again rallied and secured two shorts corners and OLIVIA YOUNG went close to getting their opening goal as the Red & Blacks upped their game. Despite their efforts, another sweeping move by the home side, saw them score another good goal to take a 3-0 lead, which they increased two minutes later with a fourth goal from a short corner. Ashford refused to let their head drops though and worked hard in the last ten minutes of the game, but despite them gaining several short corners they failed to find the back of the net and the score remained at 4-0. Next Saturday Ashford have a tough home match to third placed newcomers to the league Banbury. However, if they continue to play as well, the goal chances will surely come.
Team:
L Sergeant (GK), E Hynes, D Brough, S Kendall, N Daly, J Parsons, C Brant, T Holland, J Smith (Captain), S Pottay, L Samouel, O Young.
