Petersfield Ladies 1 Aldershot & Farnham Ladies II 1: PETERSFIELD knew they were facing very strong opposition on Saturday.
Aldershot and Farnham had six straight wins under their belts against some of the teams at the top of the division, so Petersfield decided to play a defensive formation. The hard work of Martin in goal, and Crewe, Ivey, Sinclair, Preston and Llewellyn in defence, paid dividends. Approaching the break the score remained 0-0. However, just before the break, Aldershot and Farnham were awarded a short corner which they converted, making the score 1-0 to the visitors at half time.
The hosts went back on in the second half in the same defensive formation. Again they were managing to deal with the attacks on their goal by Aldershot and Farnham. Petersfield’s forwards had continued to work hard up front and were picking up long balls from the back and putting pressure on the Aldershot and Farnham goalkeeper. Their diligence paid off and they were given a short corner. Sinclair stopped it for Hedges, who belted the ball at the goal. The ball was stopped on the line by a defenders foot, and Petersfield were awarded a penalty flick. Eddy volunteered to take the flick and she remained calm and composed as she drove the ball into the right corner of the goal past the keeper. Aldershot and Farnham pushed nearly their whole team up into the Petersfield half. Petersfield defended fiercely and Martin in goal was immense, clearing the ball from the goal on lots of occasions. A quick ball from the back was picked up by Sinclair, who beat the Aldershot and Farnham defenders. She hammered the ball at the goal to the right side of their goalkeeper, who was unable to reach it. The ball hit the goal post and deflected back into the D. The chance to win the game had passed and the final whistle blew shortly afterwards.