FAWNL Weekends 15 to 17
A limited number of matches in the Northern tier's 3 & 4 this weekend due to county cup fixtures however the league matches that did go ahead certainly made the promotion race in both leagues that bit more interesting.
Weekend 15
Division One North
Starting in tier 4, a win for Middlesbrough away to bottom club AFC Fylde would see Boro go level on points with leaders Cheadle Town Stingers, both teams having played 16 matches. An away win by 7 clear goals or more would put Boro top on goal difference.
A strong Boro side with 9 former NUW players in the starting 11 - Laura Wareham, Ellen Packham, Ellen Turnbull, Lauren Robson, Leanna Giles, Millie Bell, Becky Ferguson, Grace Boyes (C) & Kacie Elson. Amongst the substitutes Keira Skelton, Sharna Wilkinson & Georgia Gibson.
Turnbull almost played Ferguson in on goal in the first minute of the match but the pass was just slightly behind the forward.
Busy start for Turnbull. She saw her 3rd minute cross into the box headed clear but only as far as Jess Mett however she couldn't keep her volley back towards goal on target. 3 minutes later a Turnbull shot forced the Fylde keeper into a save low to her left.
Ferguson crossed low for Robson in the 9th minute but the resulting shot couldn't be kept down enough. Turnbull again creating chances in the 12th minute, an Elson header saved by Fylde's keeper. Kacie still looking for her first Boro goal although she has chalked up her first assist. I've no doubt the goals will come.
Boro having the majority of the chances in the opening quarter of an hour, this was the story for much of the first half other than two saves from Wareham, so it came as quite a shock when the hosts took the lead in the 41st minute. Ferguson and Elson combined shortly before half time to look for an equaliser but the winger's shot was wide of the target and, rarely this season, Boro went in a goal down at the break.
I started writing this post the evening of February 16th. It's now 10:30pm 2nd March. A lot has happened between hospital and rehab in between, apologies for the delay.
Big second 45 required from Boro. Not quite 10 mins into the second half a 30 yard free kick from Lauren Robson rattled the Fylde crossbar. In the resulting goal mouth scramble the flag was up for offside so still a goal down.
64 minutes sees Becky Ferguson make way for Armani Maxwell who, with her first touch of the ball, almost levelled the scores with a free kick that went narrowly over the bar.
Chances for Maxwell, Turnbull and robson followed by going into the final 15 minutes the hosts still hel on to their 1-0 lead. 81 minutes saw Georgia Gibson replace Kacie Elson. Heading into stoppage time, Boro were still searching for an equaliser. All was not lost however, Jess Mett meeting a 90th minute Maxwell cross to level the scores and earn Boro a hard fought point.
I'd like to see Boro come up to tier 3 this season. Not so much because of all the ex-NUW players they have more so because they are a Northeast based team and the region seems to be largely forgotten about in the national media coverage.
With Cheadle Town in County Cup action that weekend, Boro remained in second but closed the gap to 2 points from top of the league and 5 goals.
In the only other Division One North match of the weekend, Durham Cestria travelled to 3rd place Chorley and narrowly lost 3-2.
Cestria had the better chances earlier on, Nicki Gears involved in a lot of Cestria's attacks and having a good game going by social media commentary. The opener came on 37 minutes. Cestria's Erin Brown must have been watching our own Super Beth Lumsden, Brown becoming the latest player this season, Championship & WSL, to score direct from a corner. Wor Beth did it first though.
0-1 at the interval. The hosts equalised almost straight from second half kick off. Gears continued to impress, just after the hour mark setting up Brown for her second of the match and restoring Cestria's lead. The lead only lasted 3 minutes however until Chorley once again levelled the scores.
Cestria couldn't quite see the 90 mins out, Chorley scoring the final (winning) goal of the match with 7 left to play.
It's now 11:20, I will finish this in the morning. I've got other posts I want to write.
Northern Premier Division
Nottingham Forest had the chance to open up a 6 point lead at the top of the table when second placed Wolverhampton Wanderers visited the City Ground, the third home match in 7 days for Forest.
One again, no Bridget Galloway in the squad, I'm starting to think she has picked up an injury in the FA Cup match at Kingston Park, however Sophie Haywood and Naomi Bedeau were named amongst the subs.
Early threat from Wolves, hitting the post 16 minutes into the match, but 3 minutes later Mel Johnson would give the home side the lead with her 18th goal of the season. 4 goals in 3 games for Johnson. She almost turned provider 10 mins later, setting up Forest's top scorer Charlie Wellings but the shot went over the bar.
Almost straight from kick off Wolves equalised, bringing the gap back down to 3 points, also bringing an end to Emily Batty's 5 match run of clean sheets.
Haywood was brought on with 20 mins to go but on this occasion couldn't create or score a winner for Forest, some great work from Batty in the second half saw the score remain 1-1 and no change at the top of the table.
4th placed Stoke City travelled to 3rd place Burnley.After going into half time 1-0 down, 3 second half goals saw Stoke City come away with a 2-3 comeback win, extending their unbeaten run to 6 matches in all competitions and going level on points with Burnley, 5 points behind Forest.
Weekend 16
Northern Premier Division
Just the two matches in Tier 3 this weekend.
With no match for Forest, Wolves took advantage going joint top on points with Forest but 10 goals worse off in goal difference terms via a comfortable 3-0 (2-0 HT) win at home to Stoke City. An end to Stoke's impressive 6 match winning run, scoring 23 and conceding just 4 during that run.
Erin Nelson was on the Stoke bench for the Wolves match but does not appear to have come on.
A 1-1 draw between Derby County, both goals coming in the first half. Daisy Burt came on as an 88th minute sub for Derby.
Division One North
A midweek match on Thursday 20th Feb saw Durham Cestria come up against Norton & Stockton Ancients for the 4th and final time this season.
A comfortable win for Norton, 0-3 up at half time. Much improved second half for Cestria, keeping the score at 0-3 up until the 90th minute when former NUW forward Bianca Owens completed her hat trick (12, 32, 90).
A 0-0 draw between Cheadle Town Stingers and Chorley was a fantastic result for Middlesbrough, meaning 3 points at Huddersfield would put Boro joint top or a 0-6 win putting them outright top.
Strong Boro line up featuring Laura Wareham, Keira Skelton, Ellen Packham, Lauren Robson, Leanna Giles, Millie Bell, Grace Boyes (C) and Georgia Gibson. Amongst the subs Sharna Wilkinson, Becky Ferguson and Kacie Elson.
Early chances as a result of some nice interplay between Jess Mett and Georgia Gibson but neither could find the back of the net. Big save from Wareham after 23 minutes to keep the scores level and Huddersfield hit a corner off Boro's bar in the 35th minute.
Mett and Gibson again combined just before half time but Gbson's shot didn't quite stay low enough, nil nil at the break.
Better second half for Boro, creating a lot of chances but nothing quite finding the back of the net. Jess Mett replaced by Becky Ferguson with 20 minutes to go and Fergie almost opened the scoring with pretty much her first touch, only denied by a superb block from a Huddersfield defender.
On the 75th minute, Boro become the latest side this season to follow in Super Beth Lumsden's footsteps, taking the lead via an Armani Maxwell corner that went straight in.
Huge save from Wareham with 5 minutes to go secured 3 points for Boro taking them joint top.
After the 0-4 defeat to Norton during the week, Cestria didn't quite return to winning ways but did put a point on the board with a 2-2 draw against Leeds United.
Nicki Gears put Cestria ahead and Lucy Noble added a second after 86 minutes making the score 2-1 and should've been 3 points for Cestria. Leeds rescued a point with 2 minutes to go, a free kick going over the keeper and in off the underside of the bar.
Weekend 17
Northern Premier Division
Finally caught up.
Nottingham Forest's trip to Stourbridge was postponed on Friday due to.a sickness bug that has gone through the Stourbridge squad. With no match scheduled for Wolves this weekend there would be no change at the top of the table.
Burnley may come to rue their second half against Rugby Borough. From being 2-0 up at half time they went on to lose 2-3. With Stoke City returning to winning ways beating Liverpool Feds 4-1 they leapfrog Burnley into 3rd, 2 points behind the top two but having played a match more than Wolves and two more than Forest. Can't quite write them off yet though.
65 mins for Daisy Burt as Derby County saw off Halifax 2-0, just 1 point for Halifax so far this season after 15 matches.
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