United women claim a sizable away win
Cambridge United Women continued their good form as they made it three league wins in a row unbeaten and back-to-back victories after a 4-1 win away against Old Actonians Ladies FC in West London.
The Middlesex based side were positioned in mid-table going into the game but found themselves up against a U’s side in no mood to let their standards slip.
The game had a fairly even start as both teams tried to find their groove early on and it was the hosts who had the first real chance of the match after some neat combination play on the edge of the United penalty area found an Old Actonian’s striker, who forced a flying save out of Verity Crook to turn the ball behind for a corner – an early sign of the home side’s threat.
But the U’s settled down and opened the scoring after 22 minutes, when Laura Mills picked up the ball on the right hand side and took on her full back before whipping in a low cross across the six yard box that was met by Paige Logie who ran across her defender to side foot home first time.
Logie, who was a threat to the hosts throughout, almost added another minutes later after controlling Hewitt’s cross on her chest, before turning and shooting wide of the goal. But she did notch her third goal in as many games since signing for the club when she latched onto a through ball from Isabella Simmons after the youngster had shown great skill, and fired emphatically home into the far corner of the net.
Hewitt fired over from just inside the box as half time approached, before Crook again ensured the U’s rear guard would not be breached with a good save from a one-on-one situation to see the Ambers going in at half time two goals to the good.
United hit Actonians with a hammer blow barely a minute after the restart when Mills found herself in behind the defence from Laura Baker’s pinpoint through ball. She steadied herself before lifting the ball over the advancing keeper, opening up a three goal lead for the visitors.
The home side shuffled things around and ultimately went on the attack to try and claw their way back into the game and United had to do their fair share of defending but were succeeding in stifling the flow of attacks while launching some quick counter attacks.
The fourth goal almost came midway through the half when Logie’s great hold up play released Mills on the right hand side and her inch perfect ball across the area found Hewitt at the far post but she fired over under pressure from the recovering defender. It proved to be a small turning point in the game as Actonians pulled a goal back minutes later when a corner was only half cleared and a speculative shot found its way in off the inside of the post.
But with only 15 minutes left of the game it would prove too little too late, another swift breakaway from the U’s put the seal on a confident victory when Mills played a through ball to Simmons and the 17 year old fired home her first goal for the club into the top corner from just inside the area.
Manager Steve Edwards was delighted with the overall performance, he said: “I’m extremely satisfied with how we’ve taken to the game however, the focus was there from the start and it was a match where we got things right from both a defensive and an attacking aspect.
“In truth, we needed to do quite a bit of defending in the second half as they threw everything at us but we showed good purpose and scored goals at key times in the game. It was a great away victory for us, now we need to keep going and look to our next test in this division as there are plenty of them.”
LINE UP – Verity Crook, Emma Jenkins, Kayleigh Anne Burt, Laura Bright, Carrie Bennett, Tahnee Perfect (sub 61 mins Hannah Goodchild), Laura Baker, Laura Mills, Isabella Simmons, Faith Hewitt (sub 71 mins Lucy Du Plooy), Paige Logie