Colney Heath Ladies bounce back from FA Cup exit to beat Hutton

Rachel Sherlow (Image: Archant)

The past four meetings between the two sides had failed to result in a Colney win and in the first 20 minutes of the game, Heath Ladies looked unsettled.

Molly Slade did manage to get a long range shot away but was denied by the bar.

But with better communication, the team began to calm and link their passes together.

Colney formed their first few breaks down the right through Kelly Hancock however the final ball wasn’t easy for Holly Sheridan to gain a clear cut chance.

The ladies soon began to spot the gaps in the Hutton defence and create their chances.

Two balls in quick succession were played from the centre of the park but unfortunately Sophie Joseph and Sheridan could not get on the end of them due to some great sweeping from the home side keeper.

Hutton were managing to put some pressure back on by sending diagonal balls, however, these were dealt with well by the Colney full backs Eustacia Randles and Viki Allen.

Finally the deadlock was broken when Lucy Hancock rattled the bar after the bounce of her speculative shot had beaten the keeper and Kelly Hancock battled on the line to knock the ball home.

In the second half Colney came out strong in search of a goal to secure their lead.

Christina Freestone made her impact by beating the defence and finding Joseph who had too much time given to her which resulted in a good save by the home team’s keeper.

Freestone also managed to create some chances of her own with two going inches wide and one bouncing off the bar.

Hutton came close to the equaliser when a header from a corner was sent just wide of the top corner.

But Colney managed to hit the woodwork for the fourth time when Joseph tried to tuck the ball into the bottom corner but it rebounded off the post and was cleared.

Hutton were unable to capitalise on the missed chances due to some superb reading of the game by centre-half Rachel Sherlow who kept the long ball well at bay, an aspect contributing to her receiving the well-deserved player of the match.

Next week, Colney Heath Ladies return to the league in their away fixture to Ipswich Wanderers.

Squad: Jen Mansfield, Eustacia Randles, Rachel Sherlow, Grace Campion, Viki Allen, Sophie Joseph (C), Lucy Hancock, Kirsty Feasey, Molly Slade, Kelly Hancock, Holly Sheridan, Steph Plunkett, Ria Gray, Christina Freestone, Kelly Glynn, Zoe Morgan.