BSLFC First Team 10 vs 0 Milton United

The first team welcomed Milton United to Chapel Gate for our first ever encounter.

Having been a bit wasteful in front of goal last week the team knew they had to take their chances if we weren’t going to run the risk of dropping more points. With the other 4 teams currently in the top 5 positions all playing each other, it was going to be a huge 3 points to move us up the league.

It didn’t take long to show that we had learned from last week, Miles scoring with our first effort of the game after 90 seconds, picking up a pass from Brewer, and finishing with what is fast becoming a trademark finish from 25yds. 1-0

7 minutes later and we trying to let Milton back in when a defensive mistake gave them a great chance but Owen was on hand to make an easy save.

Shaw then got her first chance of the game on 9 minutes, she struck it well but the gk made a great save and Brewer was unlucky not to make the follow-up in time.

It would be those two that would combine a minute later, as Brewer put the ball through to a perfectly timed run of Shaw who demonstrated her own trademark as she slid in and knocked the ball passed the out rushing GK.

2-0 with 10 minutes on the clock.

Shaw quickly made it it 3-0 2 minutes later this time Folkenstern playing her through.

Brewer had a good chance in the 24th minute when Folkenstern should have shot but opted to feed Brewer who saw her good effort well saved and the defender narrowly beating her to the rebound.

Miles added her second of the game on the 34th minute receiving the ball from Yeo before turning and finishing well from 25yds again.

She then completed her hat-trick 3 minutes later with an almost identical goal, receiving the ball from Hughes before completing her party (hat) trick and making it 5-0.

Hughes and Shaw then both tested the Milton United GK some more before a combination of good goalkeeping and defence denied Miles, Asira and Shaw in quick succession before half time.

HT 5-0 and we were playing some of the best football we have played. Benjamin and Hughes freeing up our attacking players to go and enjoy themselves.

Having looked defeated at the end of the first half Milton United came out with a renewed vigour in the second. They appeared to have changed their shape and their early energy almost caught us out. Luckily Hillier was on hand to take a good cross before any danger came of it.

We were able to absorb the quick start and settled after about 5 minutes with Curtin hitting the GK with a decent chance before Lewis almost scored with her second touch, chesting the ball down on the edge of the box before getting her volley a little wrong and sending it harmlessly wide.

That range finder worked out well for her 3 minutes later though as Shaw put through Lewis to make it 6-0 on the 56th.

Lewis then returned the favour to Shaw 2 minutes later but the chance was well blocked, before Miles was off down the right-wing and found Shaw with a cross who was able to take a touch and finish from close range 7-0 and Shaws hat-trick complete.

We were playing very well, limiting Milton Uniteds attack with some great organisation at the back and through the DMs and attacking with purpose.

We made it 8-0 on the 73rd minute when Yeo played a long ball forward from the back, Lewis was there to take a touch as it came out of the air which would have given Brewer an open goal had it not been for it hitting the defending chasing back and going in.

Yeo had clearly saved some energy for the last period of the game and a minute later went on a little adventure from the back, before finding Lewis with a good pass who in turn found Shaw for her 4th of the game and our 9th.

While Miles and Shaw were enjoying the goals, Brewer seemed to be having one of those days, she beat 3 players and rounded the GK before hitting a great shot only to see it blocked on the line by a defender.

Hughes then almost caught the GK out on the 78th minute with a long-range effort but she made another good save, tipping it over.

Folkenstern had a good effort blocked on the 80th minute before Brewer finally got her elusive goal in the 84th. Folkenstern sending the ball out wide for Miles who fired in a low cross for Brewer to run onto and finish from close range. 10-0

We kept the pressure on but to their credit Milton United did not give up, blocking two more attempts on the line to stop us adding to the score line.

It was a superb performance by us but credit to our opposition who had worked hard and kept the game honest till the end.

🏆Player of the match went to Rosie Eden who was still a constant threat going forward, despite playing a different position at the back for us, while stifling the pace of the Milton United forward.

🏅Managers player also went to Rosie who was in a long line of potential candidates.

🦁 Rory votes were split between Liane Folkenstern and Hollie Shaw who managed to clatter each other during an attack in the first half with the latter Shaw coming out on top to take a rare Rory win.

On Sunday our reserves travelled up to Alton Ladies FC for their 3rd league game of the season. We were hoping to get back to winning ways after last week’s narrow loss.

The game started very cagily with both teams giving up possession as quickly as they got it in the early stages. Despite the scrappy nature of the opening exchanges chances did come. On ten minutes Gard made a well measured pass, which got Lander in behind the home defence. Their centre back recovered to bundle her over in the box, but the referee saw nothing wrong and waved play on.

A couple of minutes later a foul for the home team in the corner resulted in a free kick, which was delivered well into our box. A small scramble in our goal mouth resulted with Sims clearing excellently from just in front of the goal line.

The next half chance fell our way on 17 minutes. Another good delivery, this time from Roe down our right, eluded their ‘keeper but was well cleared by a defender at the far post, just in front of the onrushing Bentley. Our midfield started to settle after this, but the game was fairly evenly poised.

On 26 minutes a defensive free kick from the home team was picked off in midfield, with Roe playing Lander in behind their back line again. This time there was no catching her and she slotted in cooley 1 on 1 to break the deadlock. 0-1 BSFC.

The home team were not cowed and got at our back line, with Norman called into action with an excellent last ditch tackle just before the half hour mark. Another chance a couple of minutes later was dealt with equally well by Norman with Sims finishing the job to snuff out the danger.

Both teams had good sights of goal before the break, ours falling to Parsons and theirs falling to their very lively no. 8. Both chances ended up safely in the goal keepers hands and these were the last of the half.

HT 0-1

The second half started a lot more frenetically than the first and within two minutes an attack from the home team broke down with a lot of their players committed forward. This gave us a chance to counter and we broke quickly with Parsons feeding Thompson who, in turn, played White in. The last defender managed to make back the ground on White forcing her wide, but White managed to slip round her to finish well for two nil. 0-2

White, again, got in behind and forced a corner, which came to nothing, and was denied another run at goal by a very tight offside decision. Roe had a couple of sights of goal, firing over after great work from Taylor to square the ball to her in the box and slicing just wide after cutting into the box well from a throw in by the left corner flag.

Another breakthrough came on 73 minutes when Parsons’ mazey run down the left saw her beat a defender, before cutting inside another to be taken down inside the box. The resulting penalty was calmly dispatched into the bottom right corner by Taylor for three nil. 0-3.

We now had a good hold of the game with our midfield of Taylor, Roe, Gard and De Angelis starting to dictate the pace and the home team seeming to begin to tire a bit. An exchange of good chances just after 75 minutes saw a corner for us fall invitingly to Weeks, who couldn’t keep her effort down, before Brett made a good save at their near post after the Alton winger had got in down our left.

With the clock running down Roe produced another lovely through ball to Lander who beat their ‘keeper to it to poke home her second of the game 0-4.

Roe was involved again as she put some polish on the result, cutting in from the right hand side of the box to finish at the near post as the game ticked into stoppage time 0-5.

A good performance across the team in a, sometimes, feisty encounter saw us take the win and three points. Particular praise must go to De Angelis for an outstanding first half performance in the middle of the park. Lander for her runs in behind and goals, Roe and Talyor for excellently controlling the pace in midfield and creating chances, Parsons for excellent hold-up play and Norman with a very assured performance at centre back.

The reserves have a week off this Sunday, and will head to the Isle of Wight to support the first team in the FA CUP, and they will return to league action on the 10th of October at home to Rushmoor Community Women.

Player’s Player went to Kiera De Angelis.

Manager’s Player went to Lindsey Roe

Rory went to manager Vincent Marmion

We welcomed Winchester City Flyers Res to Chapel for our second game in Division 1. Although we came through the first game last week with a win it had flagged up some defensive frailties which was something we knew we would need to resolve having played a lot of this Winchester team in an early preseason.

We got off to a good start, and within 2 minutes Lander had a clear sight at goal but could only hit it straight at the Winchester GK. We’d settled well and for the first 5 minutes were comfortable spending the majority of it in the Winchester half.

Unfortunately, a mistake with an over-hit pass back on 6 minutes by De Angelis left Gard with no chance against the pace of the very powerful Winchester striker and she went through and executed an exquisite finish over Clarke’s head in the Sports goal. 0-1

As with last week the response was almost instant. It was fitting that the young De Angelis was involved, winning the ball and playing it forward to one of the 3 debutants, Lindsay Roe, who turned and smashed it top corner from 25yds out. 1-1

The game was now far more open, the direct nature of Winchester coupled with their pace seemed to panic us and mistakes started to creep in, but the quality of our midfielders and tenacity of Lander up top created chances for us.

Clarke made a superb save on 16 to keep us level before Roe was unlucky not to add her second when a glancing header bounced agonisingly wide just after 20 minutes.

We then got a little slice of luck on the 26th min as a huge goal kick from Winchester found their striker again who ran through one on one, Clarke rushed out to force the shot from distance but despite being completely beaten by the lobbed effort it bounced in the area before hitting the front of the bar and back into her, rather grateful, grasp.

That let off seemed to spark us into life, as Roe forced a great save from the gk winning us a corner. The resulting corner then gave us a few more chances that were first saved then blocked before Symes couldn’t get the touch required on the line to add a debut goal.

We found ourselves behind again on the 36th minute, giving their midfielder far too much time she unleashed a great effort to the far top corner from all of 35yds. 1-2

It was still an open game and when Gard abandoned her post at CB and went on a little adventure she was able to play a perfectly weighted through to Lander who hit her shot first time as the GK rushed out, it hit the goalkeepers shoulder but had enough power to continue goalwards and with both Lander and the defender chasing it, it eventually rolled over the line to make it 2-2 with 2 minutes of the half to play.

HT 2-2

We brought on Norman for her first game in Bournemouth Sports colours having joined us this week.

We started the second half well and were creating chances but unfortunately couldn’t find a way past their defence or GK.

On the hour mark we had a couple of great chances but both were well blocked.

Despite a very good 20 minutes they almost had the lead again after 68. Clarke rushed a goal kick and fell to a Winchester player on the edge of our box. Luckily Clarke was sharp and the shot was straight at her and she was able to catch it easily. It was another warning though that despite creating a lot of chances, we were vulnerable if we didn’t take them.

Taylor had a superb shot from the edge of the box saved by the GKs feet 5 minutes later and it appeared to be one of those games.

Inevitably we were to be punished for not taking our chances and our luck had run out, they broke quickly from our corner, went down the right, fed it to the striker wide, who ran in behind and delivered a great cross to the back post to her unmarked team mate. Clarke got hands to it somehow but couldn’t collect it and eventually itfell into the back of the net as she scrambled to recover it. 10 minutes to go 2-3.

We pushed to get an equaliser but Winchester weren’t as generous as us with the clear cut chances.

There was then a huge decision by the referee to deny us a blatant penalty on the 91st minute. Lander turned in the box and as the Winchester player put her leg across her she went over. It was clumsy not malicious and Lander was going away from goal but it was clear. The referee was unmoved by the protests, and the Winchester manager even admitted he was relieved as there could have been no complaints had it been given.

It was a shame that we didn’t get the chance to potentially take a point that was probably fair but ultimately we had enough chances not to leave it down to that. Referees are human and make mistakes and while in the heat of the moment the manager gave him a hard time he appreciated him taking the time to describe how he viewed it. Let’s hope they balance out over the season 🙂

So we finally got the first ever league loss out of the way after 26 games across 3 seasons and 3 divisions since the reserves were created but not something we overly enjoyed so will look to bounce back as soon as possible.

Players player of the match: Lindsay Roe who worked tirelessly all game and added quality throughout the game, especially with her goal.

Managers player of the match: Lindsay Roe who had a great debut and picked up opposition player of the match too.

Rory: Hollie Bentley for confusing the Duracel Bunny for the much lesser-known Durex Bunny when telling us how Rebecca Knapton just keeps running.