Foxes clear of drop zone
MOVE CITY UP TO 10TH IN WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE
LEICESTER City secured back-toback victories in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League for the first time as they won 3-0 against a lacklustre West Ham, writes Pete Trifunovic, of Sportsbeat.
Early goals from Natasha Flint and Ashleigh Plumptre, compounded by Freya Gregory’s second-half strike, saw the Foxes move up to tenth.
The hosts were ahead inside two minutes as Flint chased down a loose ball and blocked Mackenzie Arnold’s clearance, with the ball ricocheting into the empty net.
Leicester were clinical in front of goal early on, doubling their lead on nine minutes.
Jemma Purfield’s free-kick found Plumptre at the back post and the defender headed in her first topflight goal.
It took the visitors half an hour to threaten Demi Lambourne’s net as Yui Hasegawa fizzed a half-volley narrowly wide of the post.
But Lydia Bedford’s side put a stranglehold on the game just four minutes after the break as Shannon O’Brien beat Gilly Flaherty to a through ball before finding Gregory at the back post for a routine finish.
Gregory’s finish marks the first time that the Foxes have scored three goals in the league this season.
Leicester stopper Lambourne denied Katerina Svitkova twice in a
matter of minutes as the Hammers looked to find a way back into the match.
With 15 minutes left to play, Flint looked certain to net her second goal of the game when she ran through one-on-one.
The Leicester forward rounded Arnold but Grace Fisk managed to recover and clear the ball away for a corner.
Defender Plumptre said: “We got the first goal pretty quickly and we wanted to make sure we kept the pressure on.
“In training we practice set-pieces quite a lot and people say I’m the target, then I end up being the decoy and everyone else scores, so it was a bit of a shock. For me I’m passionate about playing for this team and if I can contribute going forward then that’s brilliant.
“But it means a lot because ultimately I wanted to get promoted with this team and to get my first FA WSL goal, it’s genuinely one of the best feelings in the world.
“I think for us, people know that we’re dangerous from set-pieces, but we want to get goals from good build up play and really challenging the opposition on the front foot too.
“We want to make sure we’re getting goals from all over the pitch.”
Leicester City (3-4-3): Demi Lambourne; Sophie Howard, Abbie
McManus, Ashleigh Plumptre, Esmee De Graaf, Sam Tierney, Molly Pike, Jemma Purfield, Shannon O’Brien, Natasha Flint, Freya Gregory
Substitutes: Esther Morgan (for De Graaf, 67), Charlie Devlin (for Gregory, 67), Elysia Boddy (for Pike, 87), Sophie Harris, Paige Bailey-Gayle, Sophie Barker, Mackenzie Smith, Connie Scofield, Missy Goodwin
Goals: Flint (2), Plumptre (9), Gregory (49)
Bookings: Flint (75), Devlin (80), O’Brien (90)
West Ham (3-5-2): Mackenzie
Arnold; Grace Fisk, Gilly Flaherty, Hawa Cissoko, Melisa Filis, Kate Longhurst, Dagny Brynjarsdottir, Katerina Svitkova, Yui Hasegawa, Zaneta Wyne, Claudia Walker
Substitutes: Tameka Yallop (for Walker, 45), Emma Snerle (for Filis, 45), Lois Joel (for Cissoko, 67), Halle Houssein (for Wyne, 81), Anna Leat, Emily Moore
Referee: Abigail Byrne
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