Sussex County FA Womens League – Div 1
Crawley Down 4 Haywards Heath Town 2nds 3 (Keveena Mosen, Alison Field, Karen Bridgewater)- 1st Oct 2006
With the wind and torrential rain starting before the match we knew that this was going to be a very unpredictable match.
Heath started well with keeper Natasha Kaye and the defence of Alison Field, Gemma Paull (captain), Rebecca Smallman and Sam Coppard keeping Crawleys quick strikers at bay. Within 15 minutes Coppard had to be replaced by Karen Bridgewater, who filled the role making some good link up play with Julie Boyce on the left wing.
With the return of Louise Creasey in the middle of midfield putting in some crunching tackles, Crawley continued to fight on and were rewarded with a goal. Heath continued to battle and with constant running from Natalie Trend, Mica Saunders and Jo Stevenson they put some good leg work in to set up Keveena Mosen who smashed a goal into the back of Crawleys net to put Heath level. As the wind picked up Heath found themselves defending in their half for most of the remaining 25 minutes and with constant attack from Crawley they couldn’t stop them scoring 2 more goals.
During half time it was clear to see how tired everyone was from fighting against Crawley and the wind but we knew it would be in our favour in the 2nd half. With a tactical change of replacing Julie Boyce with Jo Fairbairn, making her first league appearance for the club, and swapping around some positions putting a strong dependable Keveena Mosen at left back to give the defence some support, With the attack of Karen Bridgewater and Saunders, Heath created some fine chances, with one of Saunders specialities hitting the post. With the ball swirling around in the centre circle, Field saw her chance and cleanly hit the ball which cleared Crawleys keeper and hit the back of the net. This gave Heath some hope and they continued to fight and played some excellent football, especially Managers “Player of the Match” Natalie Trend. During the last ten minutes Heath spent a lot of time in Crawleys box, with Stevenson, Bridgewater, Saunders, Trend and Fairbairn all having a shot on goal, and finally Bridgewater forced the ball over the line to give Heath an equaliser. With a few minutes left everyone looked exhausted but Crawleys striker found one more piece of energy to beat Heaths defence and slot the ball past keeper Kaye.
The performance in this match was a credit to every single player and showed how Heaths spirit is high this season to go out and fight for what we deserve.
Team: Natasha Kaye, Alison Field, Rebecca Smallman, Gemma Paull (Captain), Sam Coppard (Karen Bridgewater, 15 mins), Louise Creasey, Keveena Mosen, Jo Stevenson, Julie Boyce (Jo Fairbairn, 45 mins), Mica Saunders, Natalie Trend
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