Stafford Town Ladies

Stafford Town Ladies will feel hard done by as they earned a point against Cottage Farm ladies. Despite dominating most of the match they could only return to Stafford with a point.
Stafford started brightly with a string of early half chances, after only five minutes an excellent flick on form Georgia Key put Laura Simmonds through on goal which forced good work from the Cottage Farm goalkeeper.

Stafford Town were suffering from a horrific list of injuries leaving only 11 fit players for the first team, leaving no substitutes. In the 9th minute however referee James Morris notice a piece of jewellery in the ear of Simmonds and she was ordered to remove it before she could continue playing. That cued a desperate attempt by the management to prevent the team needing to play the remaining 81 minutes with only ten players on the pitch. With the item finally removed she was allowed to enter the pitch again.

In the 16th minute Stafford will feel aggrieved they did not go into the lead. Key controlled the ball beautifully and put the ball into the net after a fantastic cross form Stacey Borham. However the linesman raised his flag when it appeared Key was a good yard onside.

Despite putting more and more pressure on the Cottage Farm with chances falling to both Key and Simmonds, the breakthrough came through from Cottage Farm.
Gemma Finley fired the ball past Stafford keeper Tracey Lees, after a superb cross from Zoe Pugh. The Stafford ladies heads seemed to go down and Cottage Farm finished the half the stronger.

The second half started much as the first had with Stafford being the better side, they generated two chances in the first ten minutes. Vicki Brayne forcing a stop from the Cottage farm keeper and Simmonds bringing her into action soon after as the Keeper pushed the chance round the post. Key had the best chance so far to equalise after fantastic work down the right hand side by Tash Hughes, Key rifled her shot off the post. However soon after Stafford had their equaliser.
Jo Lessimore burst into the box and passed the ball to Brayne who fired the ball past the keeper and get the goal they deserved.

However it nearly ended badly when the referee ignored the offside flag put up against the Cottage Farm striker however keeper Lees pulled off a fantastic one handed save to earn the point that Stafford Town deserved.