L1 vs Bishops Stortford 1s - 06 Feb 2010

[Pete M]

Welwyn travelled to Bishops Stortford for only their second match of 2010 due to snow cancellations.  This was always going to be a tough fixture, as Stortford are well placed in second in the table and WGC close to the bottom.  And so it proved as Bishops Stortford attacked from the first push-back, with their very quick right winger immediately giving left defender Anna Geaves a lot to do.  It was from the right that their first breakthrough came, when confusion over a possible umpires whistle caused Welwyn defenders to naively pause, giving Stortford an opening to go 1-0 up in a goalmouth scramble.

Bishops Stortford continued to pressure the Welwyn defence, with their quick and skilful forwards being supported well by a strong centre midfielder.  Holly Butrimas-Gair and Lisa Sheffield marked consistently well throughout the game, ensuring that the home players had to work very hard to get past them and veteran Janet Warrington swept up anything that got through.

Welwyn did manage a few attacks in the opening period, especially down the right with Clare Burgess, Grace Mizon and Helen Seaboarne linking well in their attacking half, but failing to get into the D to get any telling shots on goal.  

Despite some great work in the Welwyn midfield, with Rosie Hunt, Grace Mizon and Clare Johnson covering lots of ground to support attacks and hassle and help out in defence, Welwyn again got caught out by the speedy Stortford right winger.  She took the ball round the back and along the by-line before slipping the ball across the face of the goal, where Bishops Stortford won the scramble to slot the ball in to go 2-0 up.

Welwyn finally got on the score sheet just before the break, when Jo Lee chased down a Stortford clearance to the corner flag.  She got a good cross in to Jane Kinghorn, who managed to draw the ‘keeper then slip the ball to Clare Lund who swept the ball into an open goal to make it 2-1.

WGC benefited from a stirring half time talk from manager Ken Boon, who had served his touchline ban, and made a very vocal return. Injured skipper, Gemma Hale, also made telling vocal contributions to keep the side going. In fact, during an end-to-end 2nd half, it was the voices of Welwyn’s supporters that kept Welwyn attacking right until the final whistle.  Bishops Stortford  were certainly very relieved to hang on to a win as they had obviously expected an easy game and were surprised by the spirit and tenacity of the Welwyn team, who put in an excellent all round team performance.