FAWNL Matchday Two Round Up

Good things happen on a football pitch when Anna Soulsby gets consistent game time, it took the winger barely 90 seconds to open the scoring in her Cestria home debut yesterday afternoon.

With the start of Newcastle United Women's first season in the Barclays Women's Championship still a fortnight away it was nice to see a few of the regular faces from Kingston Park travel down to Durham to support Anna making her home debut. Late in the week, this match was moved from Cestria's regular Maiden Castle ground to nearby Brandon United's ground so there is still the "official" home debut to come.

It was a well taken goal. Fans didn't get to see much of Nicki Gears during her time at Kingston Park but she put in a solid 90 minutes yesterday, looking lively throughout the match. Following a run down the left wing, a superb Gears ball into the box found it's way to Soulsby at the back post who sent it back across goal and low into the bottom corner.

The equaliser came barely a minute later, a curling shot from the edge of the box getting the better of the Cestria keeper who, on the whole, looked an impressive shot stopper.

Not the most free-flowing of games but chances were created by both sides. Cestria were on the receiving end of more than one dubious offside call, most notably a promising attack late in the game brought to an abrupt halt. Barnsley for their part were also unlucky, having a 76th minute winner ruled out for scoring directly from an indirect free kick. 

Soulsby remains top scorer in FAWNL Division One North having scored all of Cestria''s goals so far this season. She is also the only player in the league to score in the first two matches of the season. The golden boot competition as it stands:

Anna Soulsby (Cestria) 4
Rachael Dunlop (Cheadle Town) 2
Jessica Gillin (Cheadle Town) 2
Molly Wood (Chorley) 2
26 players with 1 goal.

Middlesbrough came back from a goal down to also record a 1-1 draw, away to Norton & Stockton Ancients. The Boro starting 11 again featured former NUW players Beth Guy, Ellen Packham, Ellen Turnbull, Lauren Robson, Sarah Burn (Captain) and Grace Boyes with Sharna Wilkinson named as a sub. Their 50th minute equaliser was scored by Turnbull, her first of the season. The forward was the first player to react to a save from the Norton keeper which she couldn't hold on to, helping the ball home.

Cestria and Boro meet in the FAWNL Cup determining round this Wednesday evening at the rescheduled venue of Redcar. Cestria then have a big home match next Sunday against league leaders Chorley. NUW Devs are also in action at Coach Lane this Sunday in their league cup.

In the Northern Premier Division, last season's NUW top scorer Bridget Galloway opened her account for Nottingham Forest scoring the 7th goal in a 7-0 win against league newcomers Sporting Khalsa at the City Ground. Galloway got more game time this week, coming on with approx. 30 minutes to go compared to coming on in the 78th minute on opening day.

Daisy Burt made her full debut for Derby County, being named in the starting 11 for the first time and playing the full 90 mins.  Derby lost 1-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a match that featured a contentious first half penalty for the visitors and red cards for both teams in the second half. 

Erin Nelson was again named as a sub for Stoke City. The Twitter feed for Stoke does not mention what subs were made during the match but Stoke were 0-1 winners against Hull City. 

Forest's 7-0 win was not quite enough to see them go top of the league. Burnley, again, are early season promotion contenders and Rugby Borough, home town club of NUW's Kacie Elson, followed up last weekend's 0-10 defeat of Halifax with a 3-1 home win against Liverpool Feds to remain in first place however there is only 2 goals separating the top 3.