5/2/2022 Ashford Ladies 1’s 9 v Addiscombe L1’s 2

Short Lane was bathed in sunshine for the first game of the day, when the table topping Ashford Ladies 1’s entertained 10th in the league Addiscombe Ladies 1’s. The Red & Blacks were able to welcome back Lenka Petrakova, Anna Protheroe after the birth of her 1st offspring, Annie Neyton after injury and Claire Brant after illness. The squad were missing regulars Kelly Roberts, Madeline Brant, Kim and Lucy Downs, as well as coach Jackie Parsons. The visitors started the brighter and attacked the Ashford goal from the off, but stalwart keeper Jo Lawton cleared calmly. The Red & Blacks then sparked into action and were attacking strongly down the left flank with Claire Brant and Sophie Nicholas combining well with forward Phoebe Neyton, who had a good shot saved. Although they didn’t convert their first short corner; Ashford did their second, when Nicky Benedict’s shot was saved and Molly Davis swept the rebound in to put Ashford 1-0 up. Molly scored a second not long after, and several short corner attacks followed. Annie Neyton’s return to the pitch after ten or so minutes of play, helped daughter Phoebe score her first goal of the game and put the Red & Blacks 3-0 up. Ashford midfielders Lenka Petrakova, Jacqui Bashford and Anna Protheroe amongst others were containing any of the visitor’s attacks. A good foray to the top of the D saw Hannah Merchant sweep the ball in for Lucy Scott to score Ashford’s fourth from near the far post. Lucy added a second and Ashford’s fifth goal shortly after twenty five minutes of play, following good work by Sophie Nicholas. The Ashford defence had played well as always with the ever consistent Jade Johnson and Emma Hynes both shining. However, a rare long ball out from the Addiscombe half, caught the Red & Blacks out of position and despite Emma’s stalwart efforts, the speedy forward took on the Ashford keeper and opened the scoring for the visitors. The Red and Blacks responded with a sixth goal when a Nicky Benedict’s shot was slipped in by Phoebe Neyton to take the score to 6-1 at the interval.
Although Ashford had a very positive half time team talk, they didn’t play well for the first ten to fifteen minutes after the break and struggled to regain their form. In fact Addiscombe managed to pull a goal back after an attack down the right saw the ball tapped in to make the score 6-2. The goal seemed to spark the Red & Blacks into action and a good short corner move between Emma Hynes and Molly Davis saw Emma hit Molly’s return pass into the net to move the score to 7-2. The hard working Sophie Nicholas then joined the action with a good, midcircle strike the to make the score 8-2. The last goal of the game was then scored by defensive dynamo Emma Hynes who scored her second of the game, when she neatly lobbed a shot into the net near the end of the game with a lively goal celebration and to finish off a superb 9-2 win for the unbeaten ladies 1’s. Thanks are due to the Ashford umpires, David Brant and Lesley Mitchell and the many supporters.
LM 5.2.2022.