Women's ESFA National Cup Semi Final Report

Travelling to the national champions for the last 2 seasons Worthing faced an uphill task to get to the ESFA Cup final. Filton boasted 5 England Colleges players and 3 of whom are signed to Bristol Academy for the summer Super League.

Worthing started against the strong wind in the 1st half, with Filton having plenty of possession but not really troubling the Worthing defence. The 1st action for Lauren Binfield was a long range shot on 15 minutes that bounced in front of her and she collected easily. The pattern of Filton in possession and struggling to break Worthing down continued for much of the half.
The Worthing defence of Naomi Robinson, Meg Cave, Danielle Lane and Charley Howcroft-Stemp where holding strong with them getting the better of the Filton forwards, who between them had scored over 100 goals this season.

On 35 minutes Filton finally broke the deadlock from an in swinging corner aided by the wind. It was met by Sarah Grogen the Filton centre back who headed the ball goal wards which Binfield had covered until the ball struck the unfortunate Lane and wrong footed the keeper seeing the ball trickle in.

Worthing’s big moment of the half came when Chloe Debase stole the ball from Grogen on the half way line and went clear on goal only for the covering defender to make a great tackle on the edge of the area just when Debaes was about to pull the trigger.

1-0 half time against the wind.

The message for Worthing was to keep working hard and stay in the game as they will get chances to get back into the game.
The 2nd half started with Worthing much more positive using the ball better than they had in the 1st half. Filton still enjoy periods of possession but still weren’t getting any joy. As the half past Worthing’s counter attacks became more and more frequent whilst missing the final ball.

With 20 minutes to go the ultimately deciding goal came. Again in frustrating circumstances when a shot from distance bounced just in front of Binfield who made the initial save but Amber Martin the Filton forward reacted quickest to lift the ball into the goal with Binfield scrambling to block the 2nd attempt.

This led to a change of tactics from Worthing who left 3 up front and tried to commit more bodies forward. This meant the game was much more open than it was previously. Robinson moved higher up the pitch and got some joy on the right linking up with the hard working Amy Potkins.

With 5 minutes to go Worthing got the goal their efforts deserved when a corner from the left found its way back to Robinson who again crossed aiming for the far post and Sophie Frost came round the far post to tap in unmarked.
After a frantic final 5 minutes with Worthing giving it everything to get back into the game the final whistle went much to the visible delight of the Filton players.

Coach Mike Bridges was full of praise for his defeated players stating; ‘The girls worked hard and played to the game plan through-out and for a little bit of luck could easily have got a positive result. They did themselves and the college proud hopefully we can take that into the final few weeks of the season and pick up the county cup next week for the 4th year running.’

Binfield, Robinson, Howcroft-Stemp, Frost, Cave, Lane, Emmerton (Hale), Kendall, Debaes (Fagan), Somes (Lamley), Potkins.