Report: Ten goal thriller ends all square for USW Women’s 1st & Gloucestershire Women’s 1st

by Daniel Kanigowski

USW Women’s 1^st 5 – 5 University of Gloucestershire Women’s 1^st

Date: Wednesday, November 29^th2017

Venue: Oxstalls Football 3G.

It was a game of two halves as Gloucestershire came from behind to achieve a commanding lead, despite being dominated for most of the first 45.

USW started off aggressively with positive passes around the pitch. It only took a minute for Hannah Miles to put a through ball with pace in front of Ffion Price, who proceeded to take on the first player before squaring the ball to Welsh international Chloe Lloyd, who made no mistake in front of an open goal.

The newly found confidence after the opening goal was USW’s worst enemy in the ninth minute, as a complacent pass towards Megan Wordingham enabled Eve Edmondson to win a penalty by outpacing the goalkeeper to the ball. Charley Reynolds put the ball in the bottom left corner, leaving Megan Wordingham stranded in the centre of goal.

The lack of concentration haunted USW again three minutes later as the defensive line got caught too high up the field looking for a second and allowed Edmondson to find space to go in behind and slot the ball past Wordingham into the bottom left corner.

Just three minutes later, Wordingham had to pull out a great save from a shot 20 yards out, but could do nothing to stop the third goal for Gloucestershire. Edmondson put the ball into the top right corner above the keeper’s reach from 20 yards out, to make it 3-1 for the home team.

USW finally calmed down and got back to the form of play that earned them the goal in the first minute, dominating Gloucestershire in possession.  Keeper Robyn Simms pulled off a series of fantastic saves, the most noticeable, three in quick succession after a lot of pressure from the USW.

Things went from bad to worse for USW as Roksana Karbownik added Gloucestershire a fourth, mirroring the first half goal from USW. The USW defence with little to no-confidence lost the ball again and in the 54^th minute, Lois Colley followed her initial shot after a good save from Wordingham, making the score 5-1 and seemingly finishing the game.

But, the competitiveness of USW was second to none as they rose to the challenge straight after the goal, dominating play inside opposition’s half. The comeback was started by Chloe Lloyd, who headed the ball underneath the near-flawless goalkeeping of Simms for the second goal.

Determined Lucy Mcdonough outpaced the opposition twice to win USW a freekick just outside the penalty area. But it was Lloyd who again made things happen, winning a penalty for her team in the 66^th minute, though she failed to convert it thanks to a fantastic save from Simms.

The miss didn’t deter the midfielder, as the Welsh international dribbled past four players before laying it off to newly subbed Sam Hiscocks who finished it to the bottom right corner. It took 12 minutes for USW to find the net again with Ffion Price scoring another penalty, making the panic of Gloucestershire obvious.  USW started pushing most of their players forward to find the 5^th in the 86^th as Price’s cool finish earned her side a draw.