Herne Bay Ladies manager, Anthony Deer, was in defiant mood despite seeing his side’s four match winning streak come to an end at the hands of the well drilled and disciplined London Corinthians.

“The girls have got the most ability I’ve seen, there’s not many teams I’ve seen that are better than us”, he said after the match, “technically we can improve, they’ve just got to be more confident in themselves. It’s difficult but it takes a harsh lesson in losing a game to realise what we are capable of”.

Indeed, the first half was a harsh lesson as London Corinthians were a yard faster, played the better football and deservedly went in two goals to the good at the break albeit the second could have been prevented.

Emily Hart had consistently opened up the Bay defence with her right wing play but the opening goal came from a wonder strike just after the quarter hour mark from the boot of Hannah Titchener.

From fully 35 yards she let fly and the ball eluded Sarah Cooper at the base of her right hand post. Ten minutes later, Holly Ryde tried to repeat the feat but this time it was straight at the Bay ‘keeper who claimed the ball at the second attempt.

The second goal came in the 31^st minute when Danielle Harrison nipped in between Brown who was racing to intercept and Cooper who was coming off her line with the same intention. An apparent mix up in communication resulted in Harrison chipping the advancing ‘keeper.

Having beaten Eastbourne Town away with a 4-4-2 formation the previous week, Bay started this home fixture with Vicky Holness, who had been unavailable for the trip to the south coast, as the lone striker.

After the break, the formation changed to give her more support with the fast paced Amanda Beeput raiding down the left. Within the first two minutes of the restart they both had chances. Holness chipped into the ‘keeper’s arms then Beeput finished a strong run by shooting straight at Katherine Long.

Herne Bay finally got a goal back in the 73^rd minute. Harriett Chapman rode two strong tackles in midfield, squeezed the ball out to Beeput on the left and her pass inside to Holness in acres of space was inch perfect allowing her to slam the ball into the net.

Resolute defending from the visitor’s for the remaining quarter of an hour kept the hosts at bay and ensured London Corinthians would leapfrog them in the league table.

“We had plenty of chances after we scored, the last fifteen minutes were quite frantic”, said Deer, “Amanda (Beeput) made a difference on the left when she came on and she could have had a hat-trick. Should we have lost? Yes, on the mistakes we made, yes, but if we could have put our chances to bed we could have won comfortably. We gave them a run for their money in the end”.

 

Herne Bay Ladies: Sarah Cooper, Emma Brown, Alex Roy, Beth Nugent, Debbie Blackmore, Amber Guyatt, Carly Farrow, Harriett Chapman, Gemma Sullivan, Vicky Holness, Emily Brown.

Subs (roll on / roll off): Kayleigh Mount, Mollie Proctor, Amanda Beeput, Shona Clark.

 

London Corinthians: Katherine Long, Danielle Brown, Megan Mansfield, Alex Fagan, Isabelle Michalaski, Emily Hart, Hannah Titchener, Adele Keech, Lizzie Adams, Holly Ryde, Danielle Harrison..

Subs (roll on / roll off): Hayley Mansfield, Alicia Gibbs, Rebecca Gregory.

 

Herne Bay Player of the Match: Carly Farrow

Referee: Harry Mills

 

Herne Bay Ladies (0) 1

Vicky Holness 73

 

London Corinthians (2) 2

Hannah Titchener 16

Danielle Harrison 31

 

London & South East Regional Women’s Football League

(Premier Division)

Sunday 4^th October 2015

at The Altira Park Stadium, Winch’s Field

 

Attendance: 51

 

by Peter Guise

 

(photo credit: Herne Bay FC Library Photo – Herne Bay Manager Anthony Deer)