FOOTBALL: Hard fought draw for Ilminster Town Ladies

ILMINSTER Town Ladies worked hard to gain a share of the spoils on Sunday (January 14, 2018) in a 1-1 draw at Bishops Lydeard in the Premier Division of the South West Women’s Football League.

The Blues girls made the trip to Lydeard for a game that was always going to be hard fought.With Town picking up all three points in the early encounter this season, Lydeard were going to be up for this, but Ilminster really wanted to do the double.

The opening quarter saw both teams create chances, but neither side could break the deadlock. Ilminster perhaps looked more likely to score, creating some great opportunities down the left-hand side through good work from Dana Andrews, Maisie Parker and Shannon Crouch.

The game looked like it would be heading into half time at 0-0, however Ilminster had other ideas. A great bit of play again down Town’s left hand side, saw Maisie Parker play a great ball across the Lydeard back line.

As always Shannon Crouch chased the loose ball and forced a defensive mix up between the centre-half and goalkeeper which saw Crouch steal the ball and create a golden chance, and she took this slotting the ball into the empty net from 12 yards.

The second-half was much the same with both teams creating chances, but none of these were clear cut. Lydeard did however nearly tie the scores on 60 minutes when a clearance from CJ in the Ilminster goal struck the on-rushing attacker, which saw the ball narrowly miss over the crossbar.

However, Bishops Lydeard did get back into the game when in the 70th minute they were awarded a penalty. The Lydeard attacker made her way into the Ilminster box, and just got the ball ahead of CJ, who brought down the player.

The resulting penalty was scored well, being placed down low to CJ’s left. Twenty minutes left, could either team find the winner – the game was wide open.

But neither team could find that elusive winning goal and the game ended at 1-1.

An Ilminster Town spokesman said: “A very well fought match, a point being a fair result on today’s performance.  Ilminster fought valiantly, wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but just couldn’t find the winning goal when they needed it most. But this result sees us on 17 points at halfway stage of the season.”

Ilminster Town Ladies are currently in fourth place in the 13-team league and trail leaders Torquay United Ladies by seven points.

Player of the game today was Maisie Parker, whose work rate and desire, really showed what the Ilminster team is about.

Ilminster Town Ladies are back at the Archie Gooch Pavilion in Ilminster on Sunday (January 21, 2018) when they play host to Middlezoy at the Archie Gooch Pavilion in a 2pm kick-off.

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