THE IRONS GET A HAMMER BLOW FROM BLUES

Under the lights, Blues faced West Ham, a team from the WSL, in the last group stage match of the Conti Cup.

For Darren Carter’s team, it was their first game back at St Andrew’s since November, and Blues supporters were treated to an outstanding outcome.

First Half

Charlie Devlin had a chance in the first twenty seconds, but her shot went over the bar, giving Blues a wonderful start. For the first ten to fifteen minutes, the Blues were ahead, dominating the play and appearing to be the superior team. When Viviane Asseyi burst clear of the back line, Louise Quinn made a fantastic block on the line, giving them a scare, but before Asseyi could try again, offside was called.

The Blues quickly gained the lead. In the eighteenth minute, Ellie Mason’s exquisite cross reached Lily Agg’s head, who rose to head the ball brilliantly beyond Mackenzie Arnold to give Blues the lead! Five minutes later, Blues came within a whisker of doubling their lead after a masterful move by Jamie Finn found Claudia Walker, who held the ball up in the area and slid it back to Devlin, who curled a left-footed shot towards goal, Arnold stretching to tip it out for a corner.

At this moment, Blues were so dominant that one could have mistaken them for the WSL team! In the first half, West Ham did have a few opportunities. One of those came at the 42nd minute when Neve Herron, out of character, fumbled the ball and Asseyi was heading straight for the goal. However, Finn came back with a brilliant challenge to thwart the West Ham onslaught. Sadly, Louise Quinn was hurt approximately thirty minutes into the first half. We hope she recovers quickly because it appeared to be a serious shoulder injury. Her replacement was Martha Harris.

Second Half

The Blues had a similar start to the first half and doubled their lead in a matter of minutes. Blues’ Christie Harrison-Murray made a training ground move by giving Harris a short free kick outside the box. Harris then played it out to the flank, allowing Ivana Fuso to cross into the area. Walker took aim, but her shot deflected off Agg and straight into the path of the approaching Harris, who used excellent technique to smash the ball into the upper corner, just like Martha Harris does. Blues, 2-0!

Following this, West Ham began to exert more of an influence on the game and create a few opportunities of their own while Blues made a few substitutions. To maintain the score at 2-0 in the 58th minute, Lucy Thomas produced a fantastic stop off a header by Riko Ueki. Ueki had two more opportunities, but Thomas saved one of them with a diving header and the other by tipping it over the bar.

Ueki’s efforts paid off in stoppage time, even though Blues were still winning the game. Ueki was the first to get her head on the ball after Thomas botched a corner kick, giving West Ham a goal back in 90+2. Arnold attempted to draw two corners in the last minutes of stoppage time, suggesting that the goal had given West Ham some hope. She succeeded in placing her head on one, but the ball crossed the bar. Blues had a nervous finish, but they managed to hold on and win.

After missing out on a game on Sunday due to illness in the Reading camp, the team had a solid run out with a 2-1 victory over WSL competition. The Blues played some excellent football in the first half, putting together some very impressive offensive plays.

This effort and victory would have given the team a huge lift ahead of a key game against London City Lionesses this coming Sunday, even though they are already out from the Conti Cup. Bluenoses, I hope to see you there!