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 WPL:
Fight for Top Five positions hots up
Monday
21 July
2008
(Victor Sekulov) - The battle for the
top five positions in the Womens Premier League has
intensified as Preston faced fellow top five contender
Heidelberg at B.T. Conner Reserve and dropped three
valuable points to their visitors.
In arguably the match of the round the two teams played
out an exciting contest with both sides having created
quite a few clear chances but overall Heidelberg dominated
for most of the game. A dubious penalty call in the second
half gave Heidelberg the first goal and then a wonderful
strike secured the three points for the visitors.
The game started briskly and Sarah Sumner did well to work
her way through the Heidelberg defence and pass to
Ashleigh Kelly, playing in an unaccustomed role as centre
forward, but Ashleigh couldn't hit the target. Still it
was a nice opening start by Preston. Heidelberg came back
from that early scare and nice passing play enabled them
to split the Preston defence but the shot went well wide.
The game moved into a battle in which Heidelberg had most
of the possession and passing whereas Preston were forced
to clear the ball out of defence. Not having played a game
in two weeks was becoming evident on the Preston players
as their passing was not as accurate as that of their
opponents.
Heidelberg, for all their dominance of possession and
control of the game, were unable to create a good scoring
opportunity. And then from a resulting free kick on the
right outside the penalty area the ball was hit towards
the Preston goal. With Preston's goalkeeper well beaten it
was Casey Naumovski who made the goal line clearance.
Preston were just happy to clear the ball out of defence
and gave away possession to eagerly, which enabled
Heidelberg to control the tempo of the game. However Paula
Massouh was frustrating them as she broke up a number of
Heidelberg threats and managed to launch a few of her own.
Amanda ran onto a nice pass and with only the goalkeeper
to beat was knocked off the ball. Appeals for a penalty
were waved away as Heidelberg cleared away the danger.
Amanda was getting more involved in the match and becoming
a handful for Heidelberg on the left of the field. But it
was on the other side where Preston's real chance came.
Lovely work from Julia Baldwin sent Sarah Sumner through
and from a difficult and acute angle her shot hit the side
netting. It was the last real chance in the first half.
The second started with Preston facing a strong head wind
and a determined Heidelberg. They came at Preston and
almost scored from a perfectly weighted cross. The ball
sailed above the Preston defence and a free header for
Heidelberg bounced onto the crossbar and picked up by
Nabby Saliba, the Preston goalkeeper. Heidelberg now
completely dominated the midfield but could not break down
the strong Preston defence. Paula Massouh was having an
excellent game as was Veronique Guilbert. Just as
Heidelberg were pushing forward and trying to make
something of their possession Preston had another great
chance to take the lead.
Amanda took the pass in midfield and played it nicely to
Julia Baldwin. She beat the offside trap and raced towards
goal. With only the keeper to beat she hit it into the
onrushing goalkeeper and the chance was gone. The let off
was what Heidelberg needed as they launched successive
attacks. One required a desperate fingertip save from
Nabby Saliba. The resulting corner came to naught.
Then came the penalty. A perfect pass put the ball into
the Preston penalty area and with both Nabby Saliba and
Casey Naumovski covering the danger against the lone
Heidelberg striker the referee awarded a penalty. It was
well taken and the score was 0 -1. Debate about the
decision was still going on when Amanda broke free but her
shot was well saved by the Heidelberg keeper.
Heidelberg had a few more chances to score but poor
finishing let them down. Sarah Lovett was sent through by
Sarah Sumner and her shot was well saved by the keeper.
Preston were very much in the game but their rythym was
affected by the penalty. But there was no debate with
Heidelberg's second goal. A nice cross from the right was
hit on the volley and it sailed into the Preston goal. It
was a wonderful strike and gave Heidelberg a 2 goal lead.
A free kick late in the game fell to Ashleigh Kelly but
her shot went well over. With that the game ended and
Preston are now in 5th place but with a game in hand. The
business end of the season has commenced.
In the earlier game the Preston Reserves took a
deservingly 1-0 lead but surrended that to their higher
ranked opponents ending up losing 1 -4.
Photo by Pece
Siljanovski
Seniors:
Preston Lions WFC 0 –
Heidelberg United
2
Reserves: Preston Lions WFC 1
–
Heidelberg United
4
BT Connor Reserve
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