FOOTBALL: Ilminster Town Ladies will learn from the experience

ILMINSTER Town Ladies FC could hold their heads high last weekend even though they fell out of the Women’s FA Cup at home to visiting Plymouth Argyle.

The weather was perfect at the Archie Gooch Pavilion for the Third Qualifying Round match and it encouraged a crowd of around 150 to cheer on The Blues on Sunday, October 9, 2016.

Ilminster battled hard at the start of the match to fend off their imposing opponents, who play a couple of divisions up the women’s football pyramid, but the inevitable happened on 25 minutes when Plymouth took the lead albeit courtesy of an unfortunate own goal.

That opening goal began a downward spiral for Ilminster and the second Plymouth goal soon followed with The Blues struggling with confidence.

Plymouth continued to pile on the pressure and added a third and then still had time to make it 4-0 at the interval.

Ilminster had been taught a footballing lesson and although their pride may have been hurt, their heads did not go down.

The Blues, battered and bruised from a 4-0 mauling in the first-half, soon found themselves under the cosh in the second period.

But Ilminster dug in and battled much harder with determination and grit to show their higher level opponents that they were not going to roll over and let the score become something more akin to cricket.

Bodies were put on the line to ensure no more goals were conceded and marshalled by veteran defender Emma Jennings at centre-back and captain Sarah Miller in the centre of midfield Ilminster were able to stop Plymouth from extending their lead.

There were a few glimmers of hope that Ilminster might get themselves on the scoresheet, but a couple of half-chances went awry.

PHOTO – TOP: Ilminster Town Ladies and their counterparts from Plymouth Argyle join together for a group photo at the end of the game.

PHOTO – RIGHT: Emma Jennings was named Ilminster’s player-of-the-game after the match and received a magnum of prosecco from Michael Angell of drinks wholesaler Tolchards.

Ilminster Ladies manager Craig Stuckey may have been slightly disappointed by the 4-0 score, but was taking positives from the game.

“The FA Cup adventure at the Archie Gooch Pavilion is over for another season, but this young Ilminster side will be back next year,” he said.

“We’ll be another year older and with this experience firmly under their belts the girls will know that they will need to play at their best to be able to compete with big guns like Plymouth Argyle.

“We may have lost the first-half 4-0, but we drew the second-half 0-0 so there are some definite positives to be taken. We perhaps got a little bit overawed by Plymouth in the first-half after the first goal went in, but we certainly showed more of what we are about in the second-half.”

Ilminster Town Ladies return to league action on Sunday (October 16, 2016) heading to Cheltenham Civil Service in the South West Women’s Football League Eastern Division.

This Sunday’s game was originally scheduled to be played at Ilminster, but has been switched to Cheltenham.

A photo gallery from the game can be found on this link: http://www.ilminsterpress.co.uk/blog/2016/10/15/ilminster-ladies-in-women-s-fa-cup-october-9-2016/ .

PHOTOS: Ilminster Town Ladies against Plymouth Argyle Ladies in the Women's FA Cup on Sunday, October 9, 2016.

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