SHE WASN’T JADED DESPITE BIG TRIP...
BRISTOL Academy’s season so far has been arduous but spare a thought for Jade Boho Sayo – the striker who flew 4,000 miles before scoring the winner against Notts County on Wednesday.
The Vixens, FA Cup finalists in 2013, have suffered a miserable campaign so far and find themselves bottom of WSL 1 after ten games.
Yet Equatorial Guinea international Sayo has proven a smash hit since arriving from Rayo Vallecano last month and has gone the extra mile to aid Bristol’s cause.
After helping her country beat Nigeria in extra-time on Sunday, Sayo missed her initial connecting flight to Madrid.
Yet the 28-year-old still made it to Meadow Lane and scored her fifth goal in four games to secure Bristol’s first league win of the season.
“She is inspirational,” said Bristol boss Willie Kirk, who picked Sayo up from the airport on Tuesday morning. “Other players will see her as that focal point that they can get energy from.
“And there is the small fact that she probably ran a minimarathon in that 90 minutes as well.The ground she covers, the work-rate she gave is just unbelievable.”
Jess Clarke terrorised the Bristol defence early on and Dunia Susi almost got on the end of her cross to grab an opener for the hosts, who were beaten in the FA Cup final at the weekend.
That opener, however, went to the visitors after 22 minutes when a deflected ball into the box fell to Boho Sayo to loop a header over Carly Telford.
Susi then went close again, denied by the post after heading a corner goalwards, before Boho Sayo rattled the crossbar from just inside the Lady Pies’ half.
England defender Laura Bassett fired over from six yards late on and the pressure intensified but Notts could not find a leveller and striker Clarke is eager to move swiftly on from the setback.
“We’re disappointed with the game but we’re all experienced players and we’ve got that bouncebackability,” she said.
“Credit to Bristol, they played some good football and they managed to get a goal early on that didn’t help but, at the same time, I think we’ve got the players that can put the ball into the back of the net.
“We played some good football, it was just the final third that let us down.We had the chances and, vitally, you need to score to win the game and it just wasn’t happening.”