Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Herne Bay Women
IMPROVED SECOND HALF NOT ENOUGH AS TITLE FAVOURITES HIT QUICKFIRE DOUBLE
Two goals in three minutes saw Herne Bay Women defeated 2-0 at title favourites Worthing on Sunday.
Bay suffered a blow before the game as regular keeper Jasmin Connolly was forced to pull out through illness. Second choice Ellie Turner equipped herself well pulling off some impressive saves. Worthing were given too much space to play their controlled brand of football and took the lead in the 31st minute before grabbing a second three minutes later. Bay were much better after the break creating chances and dominating long periods of possession.
Three corners in quick succession created more opportunities for the Bay with Molly Shipton’s header brilliantly saved by Worthing keeper Amy Coster following Chloe Woolaway’s cross. Herne Bay had lost heavily in the opening league game to Worthing but this time the performance pleased manager Howard Pearce. He said: “We paid them too much respect in the first half but in the second half we showed the right attitude and determination, proving we can compete at this level and the next.”
Bay were knocked out of the Isthmian Women’s Cup quarter final 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw with Margate last Tuesday. Sophie Gifford opened the scoring to give the Bay a half time lead. Margate fought back to lead 2-1 before Megan Pearce equalised in the 90th minute to send the tie to penalties, but there would be no repeat of their previous shoot-out heroics this time losing 4-3.
Herne Bay: Turner, Page, Shipton, Phillips, Duff, Pearce, Tucker, Foster, Barton, Potter, Woolaway. Subs: Reeves, Phillips.