Report

After a positive start to the season the week before and our first 3 points on the table, Fleet Ladies knew today’s opposition was going to be a much tougher.
Fleet started well feeding the ball out to the wings and ensuring the new girl Charlie, making her debut on the left wing, was involved from the start, penetrating Portsmouth’s defence. Jo came close on a couple of occasions shooting just wide of goal or over the crossbar. Amy got onto a couple of crosses from Emily playing on the right wing but we were finding it frustrating to find the back of the net. Good midfield play from Lucy and Amy saw Janet volley a through ball beating the keeper. Portsmouth piled the pressure on Fleet defence but Lauren, Anna, Kelly and Olivia were rock solid until the last 5 mins of the first half when lack of concentration was punished with a goal from Portsmouth and a 1-1 score line at half time.
Portsmouth started the second half strongly pushing forward only to come across Fleets on form defence. With both sides at stale mate, Fleet introduced Stacy, back from a 4 month absence, into the left midfield and after some strong passing play, Jo hit the ball from just outside the box to give fleet a 2-1 lead. Fleet then made another substitution with Steph coming on up front. Portsmouth kept the pressure on and Fleet knew they needed a third to ensure the three points were theirs. After some strong defending and excellent keeping and distribution from Captain Callie, a through ball from Lauren in defence straight through the Portsmouth defence to Jo who then smashed the ball into the top corner. With 10 mins to go, Fleet knew they just had to sit back and defend and leave it to Portsmouth to break them down, but against a determined Fleet side and excellent team spirit, Portsmouth just couldn’t find any way through. An excellent end to end game from both sides but Fleet came out on top, well done both teams.