Lady Luck deserts K's again.
(NB: this match was subsequently annulled and ordered to be replayed on 17th March as London Academical fielded an ineligible player.)
Like the story about buses, we haven’t played in the less than salubrious conditions of Clapham Common all season, and then we have two games there in successive weeks as this week we faced London Academicals.
After the giddy heights of having a squad of 14 last week, we were back to normality with only the bare 11 available this week.
We were however on a much better pitch than last week, but conditions were windy with the wind blowing directly across the width of the pitch.
We started quite brightly and were in the ascendancy when, after 12 minutes, captain Lucy Potter tried her luck from 25 yards out and her shot squirmed past the Academicals goalkeeper to put us one ahead. As so often happens, in Academicals’ very next attack a player got free down our right and hit a high cross shot – too high for Lily Dusting in goal to reach – and the ball dropped into our goal. A freak goal, but worse was to follow only a matter of minutes later when a long through ball resulted in a chase between Lily and a striker. Lily got their first but the ball cannoned off her knee into the onrushing striker who had the fortune to see the ball drop into her path leaving her the simplest of jobs of tapping the ball into the empty net.
We enjoyed the lion’s share of possession for the rest of the half but, despite a couple of well taken free-kicks close to half-time, we went in to the break behind. HT 2-1.
Academicals set themselves up in the second half with five at the back and only a lone striker. This half was almost entirely played in the opposition’s half, but we lacked the guile to break down a resolute defence. We had one or two half chances, but weren’t really able to seriously trouble the Academicals keeper. At the other end, Lily had barely anything to do In this half, but sadly the game reached the final whistle with the score the same as at half time. FT 2-1.
We really should have won this game today, which itself is a positive, but our inability to get forward in numbers to support attacks left us frustrated and ruing three lost points
Team: Lily Dusting, Alanah Sherwood, Ellie Bland, Lucy Potter(c), Chelsea Woods, Lace Edgcombe, Sarah Sinkins, Evie Foster, Patti Panok, Olivia Watson, Sophia Demetriou
Goal scorer: Lucy Potter
POTM: Sophia Demetriou
