Late Goal Denies Fareham A Point On National League Debut

Fareham’s first match in Conference West ended in a narrow 3-2 defeat at Witney on Saturday. The hosts were playing two divisions higher than us last season and it took a little while to get used to the faster pace and more aggressive style of play than we have been used to in the past. As learning experiences go though it was a positive one and we played well. Alicia Caillard and Gracie Coleman both had excellent games, showing the value of their previous experience at this level, whilst Sophia Barclay kept us in the game during the difficult periods with some top quality saves.

Injuries and unavailability have meant it has been a frustrating build up to the season and we have not had as much opportunity as we would have liked for the team to get used to playing together against stronger opposition as new players settle into the side. With Lucie Bishop and Katie Paxman out injured and other key players including Sian Edwards and new signing Izzy Austin unavailable this week we took a squad of 14 to Oxfordshire. New arrivals Libby Jones (from Bournemouth) and Alice Lander (Winchester) made their Fareham debuts. It was also a first team league debut for Abbey Carroll and a return to the 1s for Anya Middleton. Lydia Jackson returned from playing in Australia in time to take her place in the line-up.

The match started at a fast pace. A neat early passing move for Fareham was encouraging but the home side’s quick free hits and speed of play were proving difficult for the visitors in the opening minutes as Witney won a series of penalty corners. Sophia Barclay was called into action early with some crucial stops, including a brilliant reflex save from a deflected PC which seemed destined for the roof of the net.

There was nothing that any keeper could have done about the opening goal for Witney after 5 minutes. Former Fareham player TACITA HAINES found the top right hand corner with a precise flick from a penalty corner.

It was not just the speed that the visitors needed to get used to but also some strong tackling and an occasional aggressive challenge. The worst of these went unpunished a couple of minutes after the goal when a Witney player went straight through the back of Alicia Caillard, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around, to set up another chance which was saved by Sophia.

Fareham gradually settled down and after 11 minutes they were level. Poppy Roddis did well to keep the ball in play on the right touchline, deep in her own half, before finding GRACIE COLEMAN with a pass. Gracie set off on one of her trademark long runs, crossing the half-way line and continuing along the touchline before cutting inside as she approached the 23. Slipping the ball through to Sarah Johns, Gracie continued her run and received the return pass inside the ‘D’ before equalizing with a composed shot past the keeper. It was a superb goal, reminiscent of some of the best from our promotion season.

The 2nd quarter began in similar fashion to the first and the home side regained the lead after 20 minutes. A quick free hit on the edge of the Fareham ‘D’ found a tightly-marked ABI FLORY who turned sharply to find the far corner with an excellent reverse shot just out of reach of Sophia’s right hand. It could have been worse a couple of minutes later as another reverse shot passed just wide of the far post.

Once again though Fareham fought back. After making ground down the left side the ball fell to Alicia Caillard who crossed into the goalmouth. Sarah Johns put the keeper under pressure and forced a mistake. Her clearance was picked up by POPPY RODDIS who slotted the ball past the keeper into the far corner to make the score 2-2.

Seven minutes before the break, Fareham won their first two penalty corners in quick succession and could have taken the lead but Poppy Roddis was denied by the keeper in front of goal.

The visitors had a good spell in the closing minutes of the half but the home team were very dangerous on the break and could have grabbed a third goal. The final chance of the half came from a Witney penalty corner but the goal bound shot was cleared off the line by Aimee Timms.

It had been a very entertaining first half and although Witney had more of the chances and a big lead on the penalty corner count Fareham had competed with them well.

The 3rd quarter was a more even contest with few clear cut opportunities to score for either side. It did however have it’s moments of drama and comedy, descending into farce. Four minutes after the break Aimee Timms picked up a green card. It was a strong challenge and deserved a card but it looked much worse than it was as she lost her footing and in the process knocked both her opponent and her team mate Alice Lander off their feet.

Two minutes later, as Aimee was about to return to the pitch, there was a complaint from the bench after the umpire allowed a Witney free hit to be taken well ahead of the offence. The umpire called for the Fareham captain to give her a card. Tara was behind him, waiting to come on as a sub, and was shown a green card. However it appears the umpire had thought she was already on the pitch. Someone realized that we still needed to take a player off the pitch and Sarah Johns stepped over the touchline. However the umpire appeared to think that Sarah had received the earlier card and was waiting to return and told her to go back onto the pitch. Play continued for over a minute with the Witney coach trying to tell the umpires that we still had eleven players on the pitch. Eventually the umpire got so flustered he stopped play and the two teams had to explain to him what had happened. We finally went down to ten players but no extra time was added to the card and we were only a player short for less than a minute.

With the score still 2-2 heading into the final quarter, either side looked capable of getting the winning goal. Witney had not won a penalty corner for some time but they earned a couple in the last ten minutes as they looked dangerous on a couple of quick breaks with the very speedy Jess Preece posing some problems.

The pressure finally brought the deciding goal with seven minutes remaining. A well placed pass opened up a gap in the defence for ABI FLORY to run through and finish well with a high shot into the net.

Fareham pressed hard for a third equalizer but the hosts substitute keeper stubbornly did enough to preserve the win.

The final score of 3-2 to Witney was a fair reflection of the fact that the home side had enjoyed the majority of the chances to score but once Fareham had become more accustomed to the speed and the tacking they settled down and competed very well on equal terms, leaving no doubt that they belong at this level. It was always going to be a tough start but there is no doubt that we can take a lot of positives away from the game and build on it. The fixture list in the first month hasn’t been kind to us but as the season unfolds we will become a stronger and better side and will be able to pose plenty of problems for the other teams in the division.

Next Saturday we take on Reading 2s in our first home match (13.30) at Henry Cort.