The Thirds fight back to rescue a point at the death

There were some issues with the kit leading up to a short warm up, but the team got underway in a slightly earlier KO time of 1pm.
Unfortunately, almost immediately after kickoff, in the 2nd minute, a hopeful long ball from the Enfield defence led their striker through on goal where she calmly finished into the back of the net. 1-0 to Enfield.

The team tried to find their rhythm and although Kirsty was almost sent through on goal on a couple of occasions, the ball falling kindly into the goalkeeper’s arms, the team were struggling to get a foot hold of the game.

A further blow occurred in the 16th minute. The pacy no 11 picked up the ball first on the wing, then through midfield all the way into a one on one situation with Saoirse where she made no mistake, slotting home to make it 2-0 to Enfield.

It was a really disappointing start to the game. The team tried to pick themselves up and both Kirsty, Anty and Zea came close to pulling one back but Enfield were equally looking threatening on the counter with the defence working hard to nulify any attacks.

Half time 2-0 Enfield.

In the 2nd half Actonians tried to up the tempo and the game appeared a little more even, without many clear cut chances for either team.

The real drama began in the last 10 minutes. On the 81st minute, the Enfield right winger raced to the byline and picked out a good cross straight at the Enfield’s striker’s feet to tap home for 3-0.

It would have been easy for Actonian’s to have their heads down at this point, and focus on keeping the scoreline down for the last few minutes of the game. However, 4 minutes later, Zea made a surging run from right wing and scooped the ball into Emma’s path. Emma did brilliantly to outmuscle the Enfield defender, and shoot accurately, evading the Enfield goalkeeper’s outstretched hand to hit the back of the net. 3-1. (85mins).
Barely another 4 minutes had passed when Emma was put through again from a ball from midfield and was taken clean out in the penalty box by an Enfield player. Penalty given and up stepped Anty with a low drive into the corner of the right hand side to make it 3-2 for her 2nd goal of the season. This was timed at 89 minutes!

Enfield tried a last ditch attack of their own in the dying seconds which rolled out for a goal kick to us, quickly taken and the ball landing at Anty’s feet just inside the Enfield half. She fed the ball through into Emma who battled against the defender, coming out on top, and rounding the keeper to roll into an empty net to make it 3-3! And no sooner had they scored, the referee blew an end to the game. 3-3 Final score.

The team showed an amazing amount of resilience, courage and character to come back from 3-0 down with just over 5 minutes left on the clock. It was not the best of performances, particularly the first 20 minutes, but the strength of character shown at the end will provide the team with an invaluable boost of confidence to kick on from here. The team is also still unbeaten away from home.

PoTM: Emma