Southampton FC 2 – 1 Sheffield United
St Marys Stadium | Attendance: 1,745 | Goal scorers: Sophia Pharoah, Jodie Hutton, Katie Wilkinson
Last Sunday, Saints were back home at St Marys, for their match against Sheffield United. The match ended in delight and those very important 3 points! An attendance of 1,745, a massive 500 more than the last home match, were there to witness and cheer on the girls to victory, and to also sing Happy Birthday to Wilko! There were plenty of happy faces leaving that match!
To start off with, the match against Sheffield was the ninth match of the season, I cannot quite believe how quickly this season is flying by! Only another 13 matches left until the season is over, quite scary to think about actually!
From the get-go of this match, we were on the front foot, for once we actually come out fast instead of our usual slow, take 15 minutes to get into the match form. It was great to see, and it saw us to breaking and wearing down The Blades from an early stage which tired them out slightly. Quick and slick passing, good vision on crossing, solid challenges and some superb passages of play were shown on Sunday, two in which led to great goals.
I’m sure everyone has noticed this, but Jemma’s distribution and control is absolutely impeccable, that sweet left foot indeed!
Sheffield United also have a quite small but well-equipped team that knows how to put in a tough fought battle in matches, they do have a fair few tall players as well.
The one thing I do have to mention is that I’m kind of not sure why Marieanne didn’t bring on subs and a change of legs any earlier, yes, she’d used all 5 subs but in the last 10 minutes? Sheffield had changed formation so we should have brought in new heat to battle and react to that change. I’m not the manager or trained though, this is just a view of supporters watching. In Marieanne we trust, she knows what she’s doing! Although, it was lovely seeing Alice back on the pitch, we’ve missed her there in the middle!
It was a weird one seeing Ella on the bench and not starting too! When she did come on though, it initially looked like she was being brought on to be played upfront, only being switched back to the wings/rb when Milly was subbed off.
Penalty snouts, THREE blatant hand balls and fouls were being dismissed by the ref at every given opportunity. The referring standards, consistency and professionalism within the womens game needs massive improvement. Molly getting sandwiched completely? Nothing given.
The Blades gave us a tough fought battle in the second half and if it wasn’t for Kayla, we’d probably be stuck in the mud and have lost the match, although we did have a fair few chances ourselves. The match ideally should have been put to bed in the first half, the number of shots on targets we had that was getting saved by their keeper, she really kept them in the game!
Overall, this was a very good, battled match, we walked away with the 3 points, and we go again Wednesday night in the Continental cup!
First half
The first half we started strong, we came out knowing exactly what we wanted to do, creating chances and going forward, left right and centre; this is exactly what led to the two goals for this half. The first chance of the half come from Lucia who intercepted a Sheffield pass, she
turned and laid it off to Jemma, who then ran it to the middle before squaring it to Lexi, Lexi was dispossessed but the loose ball rolled straight to Milly, who pulled of a beautiful cross that saw Sophia leap up and head it into the net! 1 nil Southampton!!
The next chance was from a Sheffield corner, the ball was delivered into the box, fortunately, it was blocked and nudged to the path of Pep who passed it out to Sophia, she was dispossessed, and the ball rolled and led to a battle with Wilko and two Blades, the on floor Sheffield player tapped it away for Jodie Hutton to take a beautiful curling shot that sadly Kayla tried but she just couldn’t reach – no keeper was getting that!
The next chance of the half started from at the back with Paige, she put the ball through to Sophia who quickly squared it to Lucia, who then put a lovely ball out to Wilko on the wing, it looked as though Wilko crossed it but it surprisingly went straight into the side netting as the goalie watched. 2 nil Southampton and a birthday goal for Wilko! Another Saints chance, from some slick quick passing saw Jemma then pick the ball up on the wing, she crossed it perfectly for Lexi to get her foot on, the Sheffield keeper saved it and kept it out!
The next chance of the half was a test on Kayla, the Sheffield player took a shot from outside the area, but not to worry, super Kayla Rendell was there to save it! The last chance of the half saw Sophia put the ball through to Molly inside the box, she nutmegged their defender and found Sophia who shot, but again, their keeper saved it!
Second half
The first chance of the second half was from a Sheffield United corner, the ball was whipped into the box and met the head of their player, it was punched away by Kayla, but it fell perfectly the the Sheffield player who shot, unlucky for her but lucky for us Kayla was there to keep it out. Paige cleared the still live ball, but it went to the wing to their player who crossed it back in, cleared away by Pep!
Another Sheffield chance was up next, the ball was squared to a Sheffield player who had all
the space in the world out wide, she took a one touch shot but it went straight into the arms of Kayla. A chance for us was up next, a ball was put out to Wilko on the wing, she down a lovely pinpoint cross to Molly, who fumbled and tried again for it to be saved by their keeper.
Sheffield was breaking through again, another ball out on the wing was then passed into the middle of the which was picked up and then a shot was taken, yet another Kayla save, WHAT A KEEPER! Sheffield was running down the wing again, another cross into the box was headed towards goal but saved!
The last chance of the match was for Saints, this chance started in the middle seeing Lucia pass it out to Ella and then sprint to get into a better position, Ella took it on her own and dummied the Sheffield player, she shifted and got into position and then pulled the trigger, her shot was saved by the brilliant Sheffield keeper.
The supporter's groups voted ‘Player of the match’ for the game against Sheffield United is none other than Kayla Rendell🤩
Kayla put in an absolutely incredible performance against Sheffield and pulled off some superb saves to keep us ahead!!If it wasn’t for Kayla in the second half, I feel things could have ended very differently!A class keeper for a class team!🤩
Well played and Congratulations on ‘Player Of The Match’ Kayla❤️🤍
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