| Tottenham Ladies started
their pre-season programme with a slick passing style in beating
Cambridge City Ladies 2-1.
The earlier rain had made the pitch moist
enough to take a stud and assisted the mode of play the Tottenham ladies
are adopting. At times, they rarely moved out of the opposition
half as they applied sustained pressure.
Like yesterday's men's match, the
lead could have been taken early on, when a 5th minute lob over the
keeper by Oshodi was cleared from in front of the goal. From the
ensuing corner, the same player curled a low shot a couple of feet wide
of the keeper's right post. Spurs found a lot of joy down the
right flank and Freeman, Johnson and Farnum all had shots originating
from that area, before Sarah McEachern ran through the heart of the
defence and was denied by two tackling Cambridge players.
The opening goal of the match came on 25
minutes, when Ruth Yonatan played a neat one-two with McEachern and ran
into the box to finish clinically past the goalie from six yards
out. It was just reward for an enterprising start, but with only
their second serious attack, the hosts equalised. Eight minutes
before half-time, a skewed clearance by Hills in the Spurs goal fell to
a City forward on the edge of the box and it was returned over her head
to make the score 1-1.
Tottenham made a spirited response with
young Yonatan firing over from a corner and Zoella Freeman making a
smart move in front of her marker to meet Fearon's low cross on the
volley, but the shot cleared the bar to leave the score all square at
the break.
With the thunder, lightning and rain
staying in the distance, Tottenham carried on attacking in the second
half. Johnson volleyed a Freeman cross just wide, then Freeman
herself just missed a header from a corner and Yonatan had the follow up
blocked by a defender.
As the pressure built, Cambridge fell
further back towards their own goal. Brigitte had a shot saved low
at the foot of the post, while a 20 yarder from Blackmore tested
the second City keeper of the match. Herrett hit a 30 yard free
kick that made the goalie reach high to catch it, then another chance
fell to Freeman, but a crowd of players stopped it heading into the net.
With 20 minutes remaining, the ball
bobbled around the edge of the Cambridge area and fell to captain Jackie
Fearon, who looped a shot into the top of the net to give Spurs the
lead. Just three minutes later, City had a miraculous escape when
Zoella Freeman put in a cross that Gill Blackmore looked as though she
was going to head in for number three. However, La Toyah Johnson
got there first with a foot to the ball, but only diverted it away from
Gill's head and away. Freeman had a shot into the side netting
after a good run down the right hand side of the penalty area and
Johnson was denied twice - once by the keeper and then by an offside
flag.
As the game came to a close, City tried
to press forward to salvage something from the game, but Tina Hills had
only one direct shot to field from long distance and one corner, which
she punched well clear. Kelly Herrett made a vital interception as
it looked like one Cambridge attack might come to something, but her
intervention prevented anything threatening the Tottenham goal.
One last flowing passing movement ended
up with Fearon shooting just over from 25 yards to round off a
successful return to action for the Ladies team. With a little
more deadly finishing, the score would have been much more in favour of
the Tottenham side, but they will face tougher opposition in the
upcoming friendlies against Langford and Rushden & Diamonds.
Team : - Tina Hills; Kelly Herrett, Lucy
Auguste, Handan Djoshkoun, Jenny Curtis; Samantha Farnum, Jackie Fearon,
Chrissie Oshodi, Gill Blackmore; Zoella Freeman, La Toyah Johnson
Subs (all who came on) : - Ruth Yonathan, Selina Brigitte, Sarah
McEachern, Steph Jones
Wyart Lane
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