January 2004 News

Chichester came to the Alderbrook not having won here since 1994, but put on an excellent defensive display to take the points. In a lacklustre game of few chances, the first shock came when the Chichester keeper had to make a point blank save after Rachael's quick throw - unfortunately a Chichester player had gone down injured, most of their players had stopped but our strikers hadn't noticed, the keeper kicking out under extreme pressure so it didn't appear that she was trying to stop play for the injury. A scare at the other end when a low shot almost went straight through Tracey Naden, but she recovered in time to stop the ball crossing the line. With their only other shot of the entire game, Chichester went ahead on 25 minutes, Charlotte Broughton being allowed time and space to chip a glorious lob home from 25 yards. The visitors then enjoyed a ten minute spell of dominance without creating any real threat, before Tracey Chapman's run and cross eluded both Ellie and Fran with the keeper well beaten. The second half was almost a defence v attack exercise as Chichester were happy to keep players behind the ball, and we just didn't have the guile or creativity to punish them. Our best two chances fell to Cha from corners, her first header wide of the far post and the second over the bar with no defenders in sight. The last twenty minutes were even played against ten players, Chichester having used both their subs and Laura Brander having to leave the field with an eye injury. Our last effort of note saw Sam shoot over the bar from distance.

The seconds started with a full eleven, but were quickly down to an effective nine as Shanna only lasted a few minutes and two bad knocks to Kim's dodgy knee made her a virtual spectator for the remainder. Lindfield took full advantage of our lack of pace in defence, the long ball over the top proving most effective and virtually all their goals coming from one-on-ones with Sarah. Our heaviest defeat of the season against another of the better teams - hopefully our next run of games against the lower sides should see some more even scorelines.

Honours were shared in the firsts' fixture with Lewes in a game that saw a superb diving header from Liz, an own goal, a missed penalty, a Lewes player hospitalised with a head injury, and Michelle being sent off. Missing Tina, TC, Rachael, both Nats, Elanie and Hannah we pressed Terri and Tania (making her first ever first team start) into service, only managing to field a bare eleven.

This close fought, incident packed local derby was marred by the serious head injury sustained by the Lewes central defender just before half time. The game was held up for 20 minutes while the Lewes trainer tended to the injured player on the pitch before the ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.
Our injury hit team started with Terri and Tania coming into the side but they were unable to stop Lewes taking the early initiative forcing us to defend a number of corners in the opening minutes. After 20 minutes we then started to get a grip on the game, Ellie crossed for Tania who was foiled by the visiting goalkeepers save. Lewes took the lead when a sliced clearance from Laura gave Tracey no chance from 15 yards. Just before half time we had a chance to equalise when Liz was brought down inside the box and from the resulting penalty the goalkeeper pulled off a great save from Char's spot kick.
The second half started with us taking the game to Lewes and from one of Sam's deep corners Liz scored with a great header. We made it two when Terri made a telling through pass to Ellie who held off the central defenders close attention to score. A miss-timed tackle just outside the box from Michelle resulted in her name going in the referee's book. Michelle was again involved in a disputed penalty shortly afterwards, which the visitors converted to equalise. Lewes then took the upper hand forcing us back, and then from another controversial incident involving Michelle the referee produced a red card for a second bookable offence. A reorganised defence and a great one handed save from Tracey saw the rest of the game out, the points shared. (Thanks to Paul Bradford for report)

The 2nds were again below the bare bones and could only field ten players (we were expecting nine to start but fortunately TC turned up early rather than half time) against League leaders Crawley Wasps. Within ten minutes we were back down to 9 as Shanna hobbled off with a hamstring pull, and although the girls battled hard Crawley totally dominated possession and the majority of the first half was played on half the pitch. Our only chance of note was when TC got forward midway through the half, and her looping shot wasn't held by the keeper, but the contact took just enough off it for a defender to clear off the line. Meanwhile Crawley had collectively put their boots on the wrong feet as they squandered chance after chance, even their crossing being pretty woeful. A 50-50 ball saw their striker crash into Sarah, and the game was stopped for ten minutes while her knee injury was assessed. Struggling, she bravely agreed to continue and was soon in action again, having to chase off her line to clear from an onrushing forward. Throughout the game Crawley benefitted from some lenient refereeing, with several of their players only being spoken to after some fairly crude fouls, one in particular taking a dislike to Lisa and kicking her on five seperate occasions through the game without punishment. Just when it looked like we would survive the first half with a clean sheet, Crawley scored right on half time, a long range shot taking a deflection and looping into the far corner.

Playing downhill in the second half, we hoped to do better but Crawley were expecting us to attack, and hit us on the counter to double their lead within ten minutes. As we tired, they were able to move the ball around freely and got their third after another excellent block from Sarah, but with no covering defender the Crawley player following in shot into the empty net. Our only chance of the half saw TC shoot well wide from a 20-yard free kick. A good 25-yard strike from Crawley's right winger made it 4-0, and their final goal about five mintes from time was a carbon copy of their third, Sarah again coming off her line quickly to block but the ball running kindly for the supporting striker to bury it. Final score Crowoborough 2nds 0 Crawley Wasps 5.

A first team missing five regulars (Tina still injured, Liz in Ireland, Rachael just out of hospital, Nat B with an ear infection and TC working) overcame a poor first half performance to dominate much of the second half, but a soft goal conceded in each half gave the Leagy the entire 90 minutesue leaders a victory their overall display deserved. From the kick off we were frankly appalling, panicking on the ball and gifting possession to the home side at every opportunity. The only surprise when Woking opened the scoring was that it took them 10 minutes to do so, the ball taking a deflection off Laura and sitting up nicely for a 15 yard strike. After that we competed slightly better, although we failed to test the Woking keeper and needed to defend desperately a number of times to avoid going further behind. Our best chance of the half (and in fact the match) came just before half time when Sam's cross evaded their keeper and defence, but Ellie at the far post put her shot wide with the goal gaping. Woking should really have had the game won by half time, and we took heart from the fact we were only 1-0 behind, putting in a gutsy battling second half performance, denying their creative players space and in fact dominated the first 20 minutes of the half as much as the hosts had in the first half. Unfortunately we were unable to create much, Cha's long range lob dropping awkwardly but taken comfortably by the keeper under no pressure. Hearts were in mouths midway through the half when Gemma Lee broke clear of the defence, but Tracey was smartly off her line to block the shot and Kerry cleared. With 15 minutes left, a quick through ball was mis-cleared by Michelle and again dropped perfectly for a 15 yard shot which beat Tracey. Despite keeping up the tempo we didn't threaten again, but the second half performance certainly gives us hope for our League Cup tie against Woking in a few weeks.

The 2nds, again short of a full side, went down 0-7 at home to Abbey Rangers. The game saw Sam Jennings make her debut after impressing in training, and at 0-4 down she was denied a goal by the highly dubious Abbey linesman who indicated the ball hadn't crossed the line when even their keeper nodded to affirm that it had. What odds on that guy getting Linesman of the Year?