Kingstonian Ladies 1-3 Clapham United Reserves
Mark Robson reports on an afternoon when an injury hit K's do their best in adverse circumstances but go out of the Capital Cup.
We had a break from our up and down league campaign today with a Capital Junior Cup game at home to Clapham United Reserves from Division 2 North. Once again, we had several players away and a few injuries, so we were only just able to put 11 names on the team sheet.
The first half was a forgettable one from our point of view as we rarely threatened the Clapham goal and, after being unfortunate to concede a goal direct from a corner after 10 minutes, we went on to concede a second after 18 minutes when we conceded possession on the edge of our own penalty area and a Clapham player strode in to drive the ball home. From the half hour mark, we were down to 10 players as Laura Timmins aggravated an injury and had to depart, but our 10 nearly clawed our way back in to the game on the stroke of half time when Sophia Demetriou ran through and was one on one with the Clapham keeper. She beat the keeper but saw her shot slide wide of the post. HT 0-2.
After a few choice words at half time, the team came out fired up in the second half. Despite being a player down, we took the game to Clapham and began to create some better chances. Laura Timmins reappeared in goal mid-way through the half and we pushed Sylvia Grierson up into attack. We were by now succeeding in pinning Clapham back into their own half, and, sure enough, after 75 minutes a cross from Olivia Watson pulled back from the right bye-line beat the goalkeeper and Sophia had the simple task of running the ball into the empty net. 1-2. Game on!
We really got up a head of steam after this, committing bodies forward, racking up the corner count and creating a number of really good chances. However, luck just wasn’t on our side today and some credit is due to the Clapham keeper who was staying calm and composed under pressure. With five minutes to go, however, Clapham broke, and a superb dipping, curling shot came in from the right side of our penalty area and found its way into our net. We still had chances in the last few minutes to grab one or two goals, but it wasn’t to be, and the game finished 1-3.
There were lots of positives to be taken from a spirited effort in the second half today after an insipid first half. But, our Capital Cup run is sadly over for another season. However, we still have two other cups ahead of us and a lot to play for in the league.
Team: Sylvia Grierson. Lace Edgcombe, Zoe McLaughlin, Lucy Potter(c), Lily Dusting, Mairead Halliday, Sarah Sinkins, Lisa Nichols, Laura Timmins, Olivia Watson, Sophia Demetriou
Goal scorer: Sophia Demetriou
Player of the match: Lucy Potter (pictured)
