London City Lionesses 1 – 0 Southampton FC
Princes Park | Goalscorer; Lois Joel
Last Sunday, Saints travelled away to face London City Lionesses in the league. A solid show of Saints fans was in attendance, showing their support for this team, a lot of new faces too! The match, however, didn’t end how we all had thought and hoped it would go, with LCL bagging a goal, and taking the 3 points. Dodgy ref decisions to boot.
After a spectacular run of matches, 3 wins to be exact, and some brilliant football so go at that, Saints were succumbed to an unfortunate loss to London City Lionesses. Despite their best efforts, it just wasn’t their day, our possession was tip top as well as our vision, but our final product, not so much. I feel if they’d of used the player who had a clear chance instead of shooting from range, we could have got goals too. For example, we had 2 players who had space to create but Wilko took a shot from range which didn’t amount to anything, if she’d of played the ball to them, maybe just maybe we’d of had a better chance of scoring a goal from that play.
I feel like the team were a little too ‘polite’, if that makes sense? With being too polite, we allowed LCL to break through us. We weren’t going in, digging for it as such, well apart from Chloe’s crunching tackle that saw their player go off injured! London City Lionesses however, were making use of every attack that they could, they didn’t test Kayla a lot, only having 2 shots on target, one was the goal! Quite a good goal at that.
LCL were not the team we faced last season, that team fell apart and appears to have strengthened the rest of the league, 3 players moving to Palace one being Shanade Hopcraft, Katie Kitching at Sunderland, Lily Agg to Birmingham, and most importantly our very own Atlanta Primus coming home to Saints.
It felt like we set up to counter what LCL might do, rather than playing our game which we have seen work so well against, Lewes, Reading, Blackburn and even Sunderland. By not playing to our players strengths, we allowed LCL a lot more of the ball than they knew what to do with. Gone was the out wide attacking play, we played far too narrow and kept snatching at chances rather than keeping our cool and expertly working the ball like we have been used to seeing.
It was a frustrating watch for this reason, LCL, a shadow of the team we played last season, were there for the taking and we yet again, failed to make changes to formation, personnel to have massive impact.
I feel like the ref needs a special mention in this, giving away fouls when we had clearly won the ball being one thing to highlight, not okay? There was also the controversial offside decision, this one down to the Lino though! Upon looking back at the highlight, it seems to me that the player closest to the line is playing Molly onside?! Surely the lino would have seen that, right. What do you think?
On another note, it was really nice seeing Chloe Peplow back on the pitch after her long injury, enjoyed seeing her back on that pitch, we’ve missed her strength, ability, skill and never give attitude in the middle! It was also good seeing Alice back on the bench too, can’t wait to see her back on the pitch very soon! On one last note, we pretty much dominated this whole much and that just goes to show, being dominant isn’t what brings you goals.
First Half
First half started and we definitely came out quick, the ball took a while to actually go into our half too where we were so dominant in theirs. We were being quick and silky with our passing and showing good vision in doing so. It was truly nice to see.
The first chance of the half came from a long ball out to the wing, Ella Morris collected the ball after missing it just slightly, she put it in the area for Rianna Dean to shoot but it rebounded off the keeper, Molly Pike was there to follow up and score BUT it was ruled offside. Wrong or right decision? The second chance came from the wing and from Lexi, she crossed the ball into a dangerous area, an attempted clearance by LCL which fell to Molly, she struck but it rattled the crossbar.
Next chance was the LCL goal, Lucia was dispossessed by Lois Joel, she saw Kayla was off her line and took a shot from way out the area, despite Kayla jump and reach to get it, it settled into the back of the net. Was a great goal. 1 nil LCL. Another chance from LCL was from a free kick, the dead ball was put into the area and headed wide for a goal kick.
Next chance was from Saints, Lexi made a run and weaving it in and out before getting to the edge of the box and shooting, sadly it sailed just inches wide of the post. Last chance of the half came from LCL who ran it slightly down the wing and into the box, she cut inside and passed it to Danielle Carter who took a strike which was deflected and then cleared by Jemma.
Second half
The first chance of the second half came from Saints, a short corner to Molly Poke was then crossed it into the far post where Paige Peake was waiting, she kept it in and put it on the head of Rosie who just put it wide. The next chance was for London City, a lovely ball was put through out to the wing, she ran it into the area, pulled back and squared it to Danielle Carter who weaved and got herself into space to shoot, save by Kayla.
The next chance was for us, Raff squared it to Jemma who put a delightful cross which was headed by Molly onto the path of Wilko, she scored but it was ruled offside. I can’t help but think if Molly didn’t touch it, that would have been on. Another chance for Saints was from a corner, it was put straight into the area but to the keeper, their keeper fumbled it and a big commotion in a small area sadly didn’t see the ball go in and it was cleared.
The next chance was for LCL, Danielle Carter ran it into the box and took a shot form an angle, luckily, she put the ball wide. The next chance was from a LCL clearance, the ball went straight to Milly Mott who put it through to Wilko, she took a shot from range, but it went well wide. Next chance was from yet another Saints corner, Rosie got on the end of it and headed it towards goal, the ball was cleared off the line which came back to Lucia who had a shot blocked.
The last chance to end the half came from Saints, Emily Kraft squared the ball into the box which very nearly found Wilko, it came back to Milly who took her chance and shot, the ball went inches wide to deny Milly her goal.
The match ended, 1 nil London City Lionesses.
Player of the match
The supporter's groups ‘Player of the Match’ for the game against London City Lionesses, is none other than `Lexi Lloyd-Smith!!
She put in such an amazing performance today and was our deadliest threat was coming through her on the left. She won plenty of corners, which sadly we couldn’t take advantage of. A tireless performance and a bundle of energy!
Well played and Congratulations on ‘Player of the Match’ Lexi❤️🤍
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