1st Half
Following a week’s rest Upminster Ladies 1st X1 entertained high flying Harleston Magpies 2nd X1 at Coopers Arena, from the whistle Upminster looked to play the ball out wide with Megan Miller & Drew Bailey linking up well working the ball down the line towards the Harleston D whilst an early Short Corner from Harleston was dealt with by GK Triggs.
Upminster continued to release the ball long out of defence but loose passes were pounced on by Harleston who found the Upminster defensive unit in fine form restricting goal bound efforts to a few chances which GK Triggs was equal to.
The teams went in at half time all square at 0-0
2nd Half
The 2nd Half began with Upminster moving the ball forward quicker looking for an opening into the Harleston D but with Harleston harassing and capitalising on any breakdown in play Upminster’s defence had to stay focused with Liv Martin prominent in clearing any danger.
Having worked the play down the line a pass in field found Lucy Falzon who having generated some room struck the ball into the Harleston D finding Izzy Uzal who in turn found Kerry Hodges who steered the ball home to open the scoring on 45 Mins.
With Harleston upping the tempo and pressing forward play was concentrated around the Upminster D but with Upminster’s Defensive unit thwarting any meaningful attacks and in turn releasing the ball upfield Amy Byrne was able to stretch the Harleston defence as she pressed forward towards the goal but having been forced wide the score remained at 1-0.
On 65 Mins a free hit was played into the Upminster D with numerous attackers & defenders scrambling to get the decisive touch an effort on target was squeezed inside the post to level the score at 1-1
As Upminster re-grouped and with Harleston pressing for a winner Upminster released the ball forward again finding Amy Byrne in space whose quick movement split the defence and took her unchallenged through on goal , rounding the advancing GK her strike towards goal was cleared off the line by the retreating defender.
With play now compressed around the Harleston D and time up Upminster were awarded a Short Corner , the effort whilst heading goal wards went wide leaving the score at 1-1.
