LNER Ladies 3:13 QPR Ladies Reserves
We started like a team who’d never met each other before, let alone played together. But who can blame the players when the last time they played competitive football was way back in November before the weather crisis struck?
It’s taken that long to get them back on the pitch due to the freezing conditions and this cup-tie almost fell to the same fate, but for a last minute switch of pitch and plenty of puddle sweeping from yours truly we managed to ensure the game went ahead.
It was an odd opening and I really thought we were going to be in for a very long afternoon, but both teams started in a kamikaze fashion, going hell for leather and pinging simple balls over the top or threading them through for the strikers to chase.
It was bog standard stuff in the bog and for some reason, both sets of defences were guilty of being far too high up the pitch and leaving acres of space in behind.
This made the ball straight over the top an easy one and in the early exchanges, LNER had the better of these moments and made their early pressure count by taking the lead, albeit from a corner that wasn’t defended well.
When football is played like that, it leads to dangerous situations and golden opportunities for those who can seize on the moment. But it also requires some intelligence and understanding of what is happening. It’s just as easy to be stupidly caught offside when you shouldn’t be, and that happened to both teams.
But eventually we got in and Kaisha Petit beat the offside trap and coolly slotted home the equaliser. It was ever so slightly against the run of play at that point, but once we got the goal it settled us down and you could sense the players were starting to work out the problems they were facing and how to solve them.
And to their credit, they took complete control of the game and for long periods, played some very good football. We countered excellently when the opportunity arose and we had great success down either flank. But what impressed me most was how well we controlled the tempo and our decision making when picking out key passes to ensure we didn’t get caught offside.
We were 5-1 by half-time and had put them out of sight, which allowed us to continue playing our football in the second before eventually running out 13:3 winners and booking a place in the Quarter Finals of the Middlesex Cup.
A brief lapse in the second-half did see them score two goals in quick succession, but the result was never in any doubt and there was no danger of them getting back into it. And fair play to them, they kept battling and I thought their performance deserved their goals.
I did like their midfielder who was outstanding from start to finish, and I liked their strikers too, who were a handful when playing in those conditions. But we just had too much quality across the board and up front we had a striking duo that were just too hot to handle. Kaisha ended up bagging seven goals and Norwegian debutant Sina Harum netted a fine hat-trick too.
Yasmin Bamford scored a stunning strike from around the half-way line and Lydia Amarquaye and Kesleigh Danielle Long also got on the scoresheet too, of which their performances also deserved.
All in all, while there is a lot of room for improvement, particularly in getting match sharp again, this was a very pleasing result and an encouraging performance in the end and the players deserve a lot of praise for getting the job done in such fashion.
