Weymouth Women 1st v Stockwood Wanderers Ladies FC

Weymouth 4
Screen 22′
Clark 56′
OG 57′
Webb 85′

Stockwood Wanderers 4
Whitmarsh 10′
Davis OG 19′
Blenkinsopp 42′
Marsh 59′

South West Womens League East Division (05/11/23)

There were plenty of fireworks at the BLS on Sunday as Weymouth Women and Stockwood played out an 8-goal thriller, and in truth it really could’ve ended up about 8 all!

Weymouth were able to welcome back Sarah Davis, Ellia Webb, and Sophie Bonfield, but were without Zara Hunt who would play for the development team.

Having flown out of the blocks in their previous couple of games, the Terras got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in this one. The visitors controlled the early exchanges and they took the lead 11 minutes in – Whitmarsh heading home from a corner.

Just 8 minutes later Stockwood were gifted a second by Weymouth in somewhat unfortunate circumstances, as Sarah Davis’s micscued attempted clearance looped beyond Chard and into the net for 2-0.

But that finally sparked the Terras into life, and within 3 minutes they were backin the game. Lucy Roberts flicked the ball into the path of Emily Screen who beat the offside trap and coolly slotted into the bottom corner from the edge of the D to halve the defecit.

Suddenly it was all Weymouth. On 29 minutes, Redding sent Roberts down the wing. She cut inside and hit one with her right foot from the edge of the box, but the Stockwood goalkeeper did well to hold onto the ball.

A minute later there was almost another defensive calamity for the Terras when a mix-up between Chard and her defence resulted in the ball breaking loose for a Stockwood striker, but she fired wide of the target.

The Terras were twice denied by the woodwork in the reverse fixture a week ago, and on 33 minutes they were denied by the post in this one. Roberts played the ball in-field to Webb who tried her luck from the edge of the box. The keeper fumbled the shot as it bounced in front of her, and the ball bounced off the post before being cleared to safety.

Weymouth continued to pile on the pressure. Webb showed her pace to skip away from the full back and played a square ball across the edge of the box for the unmarked Screen, but her first time shot was wide of the mark.

Then just before half time, Weymouth contrived to shoot themselves in the foot. Under pressure from a striker, Davis passed the ball back to Chard who was then swiftly closed down and dispossessed, and Blenkinsopp simply rolled the ball into an unguarded net to send Stockwood into the break with a 3-1 lead.

Ruby Clark was introduced up front at half time, and this would prove to be a game changer.

The Terras came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half. Her aggressive pressing immediately began to cause mistakes in the Stockwood defence, and they struggled to cope with her pace and movement.

After Annie Redding had warmed the keeper’s palms with a shot from the edge of the box, Clark was sent clean through on goal on 52 minutes, but she could only fire straight at the keeper.

She proved that was just a practice effort though, as on 56 minutes she latched onto Charlie Wilson’s ball through the centre and rifled home to make it 3-2.

And barely a minute later, she was at the centre of the action again, as she again beat the offside trip and raced through. The keeper came off her line and Clark managed to get around her, however her touch took the ball away from her. There were 2 covering defenders, but a complete mix up between them resulted in them hammering the ball into their own net to haul Weymouth level.

Unfortunately though, parity was not to last long, as within 2 minutes Stockwood re-took the lead, again in rather bizarre fashion, as Marsh hit a shot which looked for all money to be sailing over the bar, but the wind caught it perfectly, and to the surprise of everyone including Marsh – it dipped just under the bar at the last possible second and nestled in the net. So that made the score 3-4 on 59 minutes for those of you struggling to keep up!

For a while, that goal appeared to have knocked the stuffing out of Weymouth, as Stockwood regained control for a period. They should’ve restored their 2-goal cushion on 67 minutes when they worked it well from the right flank but the striker managed to miss an open goal from point-blank range.

The Terras were then reduced to 10 players briefly as Ellia Webb was sin binned, but they came close to levelling it up despite the numerical disadvantage when Bonfield met Roberts’ corner, but her header was well saved.

On 83 minutes Stockwood had another glorious chance to seal the deal once and for all when Weymouth failed to clear a corner and the ball fell for a Stockwood player in the middle of the box, but the shot was blazed over the bar.

And that would come back to bite the visitors, as Ellia Webb returned to the game and made the best possible impact with 5 minutes to go.

Sophie Bonfield showed fantastic strength to first hold the ball up, then played an absolutely superb cross-field ball into Webb’s path. Webb calmly lobbed the ball over the keeper and watched as it bounced into the goal to make it 4-4.