Actonians 3 - 1 Fulham

For the second time this season Fulham visited Rectory Park for a cup tie. Today it was the Capital Women’s Cup quarter final round with Actonians looking for a favourable result this time around. With Elisa unavailable today Amber took her place in goal and there were returns to the starting lineup for Meila, Tori and Dom.

Actonians probably settled slightly the better of the two sides with the back three showing early signs that Fulham would have to work very hard to break them down and with Naomi and Meila bossing the midfield. Actonians first effort on target came in the 10th minute. Dom’s low shot towards the bottom corner could only be pushed away by the keeper. Jas made a good run in the 19th minute and her shot went narrowly wide.
Actonians did take the lead in the 21st minute. A great pass from Dom sent Tori through who placed her shot in the opposite corner of the net.

Olivia went close to getting on the end of Mara’s 26th minute free kick and 2 minutes later Tori probably should have doubled the lead. After going round the keeper she found herself at too much of a tight angle to hit the target. With the game becoming a bit end-to-end Actonians got that crucial 2nd goal 3 minutes into added time. Another beautiful through ball from Dom and a beautiful finish from Shakes. Half-time 2-0.

Ten minutes into the second half Dom’s game was unfortunately brought to a premature end through injury and she was replaced by Amber. On 62 minutes Tori found herself on the right sideline with no teammates in sight so set towards goal herself and found the net from an acute angle for Actonians third and her second. Fulham got a goal back 5 minutes later as they began to offer a bit more of an attacking threat. More changes were made with Ikraam replacing Camila in the 74th minute and Molly replacing Shakes in the 81st. Amber fired a shot over the bar in the 88th minute in between Fulham working hard to get another goal back. However the back three remained firm to protect the two-goal cushion. Further changes were made in added time with Amina replacing Tori and Chi replacing Jas but there were no more goals added to the scoreline. Full-time 3-1.

A convincing win against Fulham this time around after the disappointment of conceding a late goal and losing on penalties earlier in the season. The team performance was solid from back to front with the back three rarely being beaten and Naomi in front of them winning everything that came her way. Two more goals from Tori added to many potential candidates for player of the match. However, today my choice was Dom. Despite only being on the pitch for 55 minutes she played in an unfamiliar position and took to it like water off a ducks back. As well as performing her defensive duties she weighed in with two excellent assists, especially the second one.

A sixteen day wait for the next competitive game now when we face Chesham under the lights at Bedfont Sports.

Report and photo by Neil Hayward,