A View from the Zak! - Extra Edition!

Worthing College Women's Football Academy vs. Chichester College

The girls arrived in Chichester for their second game in 3 days and were faced with another cup game in a BCS competition they should be looking to go far in. But with the attitude they showed going into this game, they could easily get turned over by sides that are not technically as gifted as them but have more desire for the game.

After convincingly thrashing St Bedes in the Count Cup semi-final just two days before Worthing turned up thinking they could turn over Chi just as easily. But the reverse fixture earlier in the season saw Worthing concede 7 goals to this same Chichester side.
In the warm up the girls seemed to lack focus and with only 12 players in the squad for the game due to unavailability, the signs were not promising. But the girls to their credit started the game well, with a few playing out of position and a new formation taken up because of certain absentees. On a big pitch they did look to keep the ball on the floor and play it around. They were rewarded after 20 minutes from a corner. Naomi Robinson’s delivery was brilliantly finished on the volley by Lucy Somes. 1-0.

Then for some reason Worthing began to get lazy, the big pitch was making the defence sit deeper and the midfield not work as hard which left the hard working Chichester space to play their football, and against the run of play Worthing doubled their lead, a brilliant ball through by Somes allowed Amy Potkins to run away from the defence and poke it passed the on rushing keeper. 2-0.

At half time, the girls were told that they needed to work harder to see this game out and this was exactly what they didn’t do, they were given a warning just before half time when Chichester hit the cross bar but 10 minutes after half time Chichester got a goal back from a rebound after a Lauren Binfield save. 2-1.

And this spurred Chichester into life and did not seem to wake Worthing up, for the next twenty minutes it looked like the game was destine for extra time as Chichester pressed and pressed and deserved a second goal after several chances. Worthing on the other hand could not hold onto the ball for more than a couple of chances and were not working hard off the ball to win it back.

Once again against the run of play Worthing scored, and they could only have Amy Potkins to thank, she picked the ball up and managed to shift it and shoot catching the keeper off guard and regaining Worthing’s two goal cushion. 3-1.

Chichester were rightly gutted to concede and were then caught again from brilliant work rate and composure from Amy Potkins. A long aimless ball into the channel was chased by Potkins and she finished brilliantly from an angle over the keeper. 4-1.

The game fizzled out with Worthing progressing but this was harsh on Chichester who’s work rate was admirable.
Worthing will not be able to just rely on quality throughout the tournament and a lack of effort can easily be the beating of them.

Lets look to up the work rate in the next round!

Player of the Match – Amy Potkins, scored a hat trick and was the difference between the two sides. Worked hard consistently and moves to 18 goals for the Academy this season.