Cambridge Women lose to third placed Chichester

Cambridge Women lose to third placed Chichester

Cambridge Women suffered defeat at the hands of third placed Chichester City on Sunday afternoon.

It was the first game for the Skyblues in many weeks and they were dealt a blow over the weekend losing imperious midfielder Laura Brown and new signing Kim Motley to personal committments. It was a blow to Cambridge but Liz Pamplin rejoined the squad.

Cambridge had to endure a three hour journey by road to get down to Chichester and were greeted with a pitch akin to a ploughfield. Despite this the pitch was passed fit to play. Although the surface was far from ideal Cambridge were ready to play and give it their best shot.

The opening stages of the game saw Chichester enjoy the better of possession & whilst having some speculative efforts at goal they rarely troubled Verity Crook in goal.

Cambridge were still trying to shake off the long journey early on and they tried to play on the terrible surface but couldn’t work any openings in the Chichester defence.

On 18 minutes Chichester took the lead after a Cambridge goal kick came up short of the midfield and was won by Chichester who had time to pick out the run of forward Challen with the Cambridge back four failing to press the ball. The Chichester forward rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the empty net. The game was being played in the midfield, with Cambridge willing to let Chichester have possession & keeping their shape to deny any clear sight of goal.

After half an hour Chichester got a penalty after Kayleigh Burt who was chasing back to clear a through ball stumbled, as she fell to the ground Challen fell on top of her and won herself the spot kick which was converted by Wride for 2-0.

HT 2-0

The second half saw Cambridge start the brightest. The Skyblues got tighter to their opponents and were sharper in both attack and defence which gave them the confidence to go in search of a goal that would get them back in the game.

Liz Pamplin had replaced Verity Crook at half time and after 10 minutes Kelly Docwra replaced Laura Baker. Liz Pamplin was untroubled in goal, dealing with any shots with ease as Chichester looked to increase their lead but it was Cambridge who looked more like scoring.

In a moment of brilliance Kelly Docwra laid a perfect pass off to Laura Bright who shot from 20 yards only to be denied by the woodwork leaving the Chichester keeper flapping hopelessly in vain to get a hand to it.

After forcing several corners and coming close to grabbing a goal back Cambridge were suddenly three down on 75 minutes after the tireless Hannah Goodchild played a back pass blind to send the Chichester forward Challen clear to shoot past Liz Pamplin in goal.

Despite conceding the Cambridge players refused to give in and battled to the end, the game was played in a competitive but feisty spirit but it threaten to boil over when the Chichester players & management failed to grasp the fact that the Cambridge players allowed to tackle them. That then led to some unsavory behavior from a section of home supporters which left a bitter taste at the end of the game.

FT 3-0