Captain Bradley’s career first in victory
Jade Bradley savoured her stunning strike which helped Pompey Women sink Cheltenham Ladies in the Women's FA Cup and insisted: It might be one of my most important goals yet.
The Blues' captain netted directly from a corner to set her side on the way to a 2-0 second-round victory after extra-time at Westleigh Park.
Bradley's superb opener on 100 minutes broke Cheltenham's stiff rearguard, then substitute Becki Bath added a second just before half time in extra-time.
The Pompey Women's skipper, 24, said it was the first time she'd ever scored straight from a corner.
And she even joked about wondering whether she could 'hit the ball that far' after seeing the strike find the back of the net. Bradley jested: ‘I had it planned from minute one, it’s why I kept putting the corners front post, so I thought I would whip it a bit further and it would go in!
‘I think the whip might have been a little bit too much but it’s a goal – a goal is a goal.
‘Not that I remember (scoring from a corner before) I didn’t even know I could hit it that far!
‘I’ve scored better but in terms of importance it kind of gave us the lift we needed.
‘We were struggling, I think Cheltenham played unbelievable, I think we made it harder for ourselves and I think the goal gave us that lift we needed.’
Both teams were returning to competitive action for the first time since December after the non-elite football shutdown at the start of this year.
Bradley admitted the last thing Pompey Women needed was extra-time in their first fixture back after such a long break.
But victory was the most important thing. Bradley said: ‘The heat after not playing since December is not nice on the legs. I think we hit extra-time and it spurred us on a little bit more and we got the goal and we were controlling it after that. I did think, ‘jeez, first game back and we’ve just hit extra-time,’ a win is a win, you can’t complain, you’ve got to be happy.’