Actonians 1-1 Fulham (3-4 pens)

An FA Cup tie for the first team this afternoon with Fulham being the visitors to Rectory Park. Although Fulham play one tier lower than Actonians they have made a very strong start to their league campaign while the home side have struggled a bit for consistency so a close game was expected today. Actonians fielded an unchanged starting eleven from their recent victory at QPR.

Actonians started the brighter of the two sides with Tori having a shot blocked in the 3rd minute and seeing her 6th minute effort get saved. Fulham did go close to taking the lead with 10 minutes on the clock hitting the crossbar. In the 24th minute Meila sent in a teasing corner which Jas and Isi were both close to getting on the end of. Tori had another effort in the 34th minute after racing towards Jen’s ball on the right hand side but this time her shot went over the bar. Shakes had a shot in the 42nd minute but in a half where both teams mostly cancelled each other out the score remained goalless at the interval.

The second half started off the same way and the most notable piece of action early on was a goalmouth scramble in the 54th minute where Fulham eventually cleared their lines. Then in the 64th minute Jas, arguably player of the season so far, battled to win the ball back twice before going on a run past a couple of defenders and finding the back of the net for a superb solo goal. 1-0. The same player went close to meeting a Shakes shot 4 minutes later after Maria’s shot was blocked. Actonians were on top at this stage and looked the most like to score again. Jas had another effort go wide in the 76th minute with Shakes going close twice either side of that. In the 80th minute Amber came on to replace Olivia. With the game potentially slipping away from them Fulham, on and off the pitch, were desperately calling for decisions to go their way that shouldn’t have. In the 88th minute a Fulham player saw red for a terrible challenge on Jen. A late change saw Ashleigh replace Shakes. Then in the first minute of added time, and against the run of play, Fulham got an equaliser which took the tie to penalties.

Unfortunately Fulham won the shootout 4-3 which saw the Actonians cup run bought to an early end this season. The As battled well today and it was a game that probably should have been won before the late equaliser, but cup ties can be cruel at times and this was one of those times. Today’s player of the match was Camila. Home again next Sunday and back to league action with AFC Sudbury the visitors.

Report by Neil Hayward