Town Ladies take the honours in derby clash
LOUGHBOROUGH TOWN LADIES’ 3RD XI 2 LOUGHBOROUGH CARILLON 1ST XI 0 MIDLANDS WOMEN’S DIVISION 4 NENE / CHARNWOOD AFTER A great win the week before, Loughborough Town Ladies 3rd XI faced formidable competition, as they played local rivals and top of the league Loughborough Carillon 1st XI. The opposition had beaten Town in the first half of the season, and so there was a definite desire to even the score.
Town started strong but were met by an equally impressive midfield of Carillon. Both teams were passing well and creating chances, and the game was end to end. The deadlock was broken around the fifteen-minute mark as a ball out from defence found midfielder Fran Bucher, who passed to Emily Quinn. Despite Carillon’s best efforts to stop her, Quinn drove the side-line releasing a perfectly timed pass to Sam Dalby who was unmarked in the D. The keeper spotting the danger tried to close the gap, but Dalby slipped the ball past her to make it 1-0.
Carillon rallied well and pushed to get an equaliser but Town doubled their lead in the 25th minute after Quinn again beat Carillon’s defence and drew the keeper away from a waiting Dalby, who received another great feed from Quinn to slot it home for hers and Town’s second.
Whilst the second half saw no change to the score line, it was not without drama. Both teams wanted to secure the win and Kate Horrigan in Towns goal, was again impressive as she closed down players and stopped all that came her way. With about eight minutes to go, an amazing goal line save from Izzy Perry prevented any sign of a late comeback, as defensive pairing Iris Broekhuijzen and Annabel Page followed this up with strong tackling and targeted clearances.
As the final whistle blew Town took all three points, and levelled the head-to-head this year.
As most teams take a break next week, Town will travel to Leicester 4th XI to play third in the table, in what is anticipated to be another great game.
ASHBY 4TH XI 0 CARILLON 2ND XI 4 WITH Carillon’s first team fixture called off late by the Nottingham team due to covid cases, it was the 2s who took centre stage and a Leicestershire derby with Ashby.
Having beaten the same opposition comfortably at home, Carillon were confident over another win to keep them top of the league in 9SE.
The team was showing some alterations due to a combination of half term holidays, injury and illness. Even with the disruption in the line up Carillon controlled the game and were able to comfortably complete what could be described as a professional performance. Two goals in either half consigned the home team to defeat and concluded a third straight win for the team, Alex Middleton collected the man of the match award with a goal in an all action performance.
Carillon 3rd XI were also on their travels with a long journey up to North Notts 4th XI. Notts are still playing in Worksop due to pitch issues in their home town of Mansfield adding an extra chunk on to an already long away day. Much like the 2nd XI, the side was also showing several changes, notably John Ward who returned to action after a number of months out, and took a while to get going. P
aul Cleminson did have the ball in the goal but was remade to take his penalty flick and missed the follow up. The game was scrappy and back and forth until Billy Bolton scored the opener. This was added to by two goals from Alex Relf in a 3-0 win, at least making the long journey worthwhile.