Notts County 5 - 2 WCWFC
WCWFC Starting 11
Our away fixture against Notts County at Coronation Park finished in a 5-2 defeat for City in miserable conditions, despite Jasmin Springer and Chloe Bellamy bagging their first FA Women's National League goals for the club.
The game started quickly with Evie Billingsley having an attempt on goal saved in the first two minutes after Springer’s excellent through ball. Only one minute later, County moved the ball towards the City box and Brookes managed to fire the ball past Alisha Hine to put her side 1-0 up. Despite going down, however, City were still working some nice patterns of play and Annie Highway even found the back of the net in the fifth minute but her effort was judged to be offside. After some tense end-to-end football, City found the equaliser in the 10th minute with Shona Baldwin’s cross teeing up Jasmin Springer perfectly to fire home for her first City goal in the FAWNL.
After the goal, City continued with some nice passages of play and both Jess Fassnidge and Highway’s balls forward continued to threaten the Magpies. Notts County still looked dangerous on the break however and after two powerful long-range efforts from Highway and Fassnidge, it was County who put themselves ahead. In the 37th minute, a ball was drilled across the City box and County’s winger was able to fire the ball home. We moved into the break with County maintaining their one-goal advantage.
The second half saw the home side come out quickly and they scored their first goal of the half in the 48th minute when their number 14 found herself onside with the ball on the edge of the box. County continued to put pressure on the City defence with Hine making some excellent saves to keep City in the game. A 62nd minute indirect freekick was well cleared by Kaye Haggett but County found their fourth goal of the match when their forward controlled a high ball excellently and managed to loop a ball over Hine.
The home side then managed their fifth goal from a calmly dispatched penalty when their player was tripped in the box when running through. City did find a consolation goal in the 75th minute however when Chloe Bellamy claimed her first FAWNL goal when rising high to meet a lofted free-kick. After this goal, City brightened a little with Billingsley and Bellamy getting forward well a few times but these efforts came to nothing and the game finished in a 5-2 defeat.
In our next game, we will play our home fixture against Loughborough Lightning in two weeks at Malvern Town FC. We're excited to bring National League football to Malvern and you can get your tickets ready as usual by clicking the button below!