Chatham Town Women held off a spirited comeback from Cambridge United Ladies to get back to winning ways in the FA Women’s National League on Sunday afternoon.
As winger Lottie Sharp received mementoes before the game for reaching one hundred games for the club, the winger and her team-mates flew out of the blocks with two quick fire goals from Amelia Woodgate.
The visitors improved as the game went on and because the Chats didn’t take another chance, United were able to pull a goal back with fifteen minutes left and it was only after three of the Chats subs combined – Amy Russ, Otesha Charles and Kara Fordjour – that Fordjour was able to slip home the third in the final minute to seal the points.
The Chats hit the front inside the opening ninety seconds as Woodgate did really well to beat the defender to the near post touch past keeper Lauren Webb. Games between these sides have been traditionally tight and close which made Woodgate’s second goal on eight minutes even more important – this time racing onto a super through ball, holding her composure and with some aplomb, Woodgate waltzed round Webb to double the lead.
It could have been more for the Chats as skipper Ellie Perkins sent a diving header from a Lucy Jones corner wide and Sharp saw a drive whistle across the face of goal. Perkins then went even closer, with a header from another Jones corner, which Webb this time beat away, before the visitors enjoyed their best spell of the half with Hope Strauss and Jade Bell going close before half time will curling efforts.
After the break Cambridge upped the tempo, and it was a combination of Perkins, Holly Turner and keeper Evie Thorn-Ford – who had undoubtedly her best game thus far for the Chats – which kept one attack at bay. Perkins and Turner both blocked shots and when the third chance came, Thorn-Ford made a super stop to keep out Bella Gambell’s header.
The game was so open now that chances came at both ends with Iton getting in behind the united defence only to see her lob bounce agonisingly wide of the left post.
Perkins was on hand to clear the next Cambridge danger after Thorn-Ford had done well to force Mollie Caupar wide and in their next attack, the visitors got on the scoreboard. A sloppy ball out from defence saw Cambridge win a free kick, which Renai Bennett arrowed towards the top corner only to be denied by a flying figure dressed in yellow who flew across her goal to fingertip the ball to safety. It truly was a stunning save but sadly as often happens follows a save of that magnitude the attacking side scored from the corner as Coupar was able to bundle the ball over the line despite three more efforts being blocked – two from the keeper – as the ball pinballed across the box.
The game was a knife edge now as the minutes ticked by and the Chats weren’t helped when they lost Jines late on after a collision but with Ellie Jeffkins being brough on in the middle of the park, there simply was too much for Cambridge to do.
And when Russ chased down a lost cause in the final seconds, she got the ball to Charles, who jinked inside and sent the most teasing of balls into the box and the direction of Fordjour, who’s first touch of the ball after coming on, steered the ball beyond Webb, to seal three very hard-won points for the home side.
CHATHAM TOWN WOMEN – Thorn-Ford, O’Shea, Jones (Maddy Woodgate), Perkins, Wellington, Keogh (Jeffkins), Auguste, Iton (Charles), Amelia Woodgate (Fordjour), Sharp (Russ)
Sub – Bramwell
CAMBRIDGE UNITED LADIES – Webb, Jeffrey, Jackson (Beeson), Cook (Tomlinson), Miles (Edgar), Coupar, Bell, Jarvis, Gambell (Norman), Bennett (Shaw), Strauss
Subs – Dixon, Hacker