Kingstonian Ladies 1-8 Bromley
Match report by Mark Robson.
After last week’s gallant effort 9 v 11, we managed to field the full 11 this week, though we had no subs and once again we had several changes. In came Ellie Crow for her first game of the season in goal and likewise Hanna Robson, back for the weekend from Germany. We also welcomed back Emily Hobern, Olivia Watson and Laura Timmins.
We started brightly, applying pressure to the Bromley defence and creating some early chances so it was somewhat against the run of play when Bromley raided down our left flank on 13 minutes and the ball was pulled back for an inrushing Bromley striker to ram the ball home. 0-1. Only four minutes later, we were 2 down as our defence failed to take several chances to clear their lines and the ball finally ended up in the back of our net. 0-2.
Heads understandably dropped for a while after this and Bromley were enjoying one of those days when everything they tried seemed to come off. We were still regularly creating our own chances, but we lacked conviction in our shooting and half-time came with the score an unfortunate 0-6.
The second half was about playing for pride. And that’s certainly how the team responded. We had largely the better of this half, pressing Bromley back. On 65 minutes Mairead Halliday hit the bar from a twenty-five yard free-kick. So close! On 70 minutes however we gifted the ball to Bromley just inside our own half and they launched a fast attack that culminated in a shot past Ellie in goal. 0-7. The best goal of the match was however clearly ours. On 75 minutes, Olivia Watson picked up the ball just inside her own half and ran through the Bromley defence. She rounded the goalkeeper but was pushed very wide, but she succeeded in twisting her body and sliding the ball home from the narrowest of angles. What a great goal. 1-7.
With five minutes to go, Sarah Sinkins slid the ball home from a tight angle, but, after some confusion, the linesman belatedly flagged and the referee disallowed it for off-side. To cap off a thoroughly unlucky day, Bromley broke in the last two minutes and notched an 8th goal. FT 1-8.
Credit to Bromley who battled hard and played a neat pass-and-move game for periods of this match. And also for being ruthless in front of goal. But, the margin of victory in no way reflected the match as a whole. Yes, we had a poor 30 minutes spell in the first half when Bromley outfought us, but for the first quarter hour of the match and the whole of the second half, we more than matched our opponents. There were in fact plenty of positives to take from this game despite the result. We lick our wounds and move on.
Team: Eloise Crow, Lace Edgcombe, Hanna Robson, Lucy Potter(c), Laura Timmins, Lily Dusting, Mairead Halliday, Emily Hobern, Sarah Sinkins, Olivia Watson, Sophia Demetriou
Goal scorer: Olivia Watson
Player of the match: Olivia Watson (pictured)
