Adran Premier Report | Cardiff City 2-2 Briton Ferry Llansawel
City Women fought back from two goals down to claim a point against Briton Ferry Llansawel at Cardiff International Sports Campus.
The visitors led through goals from Lowri Ridings and Alison Witts either side of half time, before an Eliza Collie double earned the Bluebirds a hard-fought point.
Head coach Iain Darbyshire made one change to the side that played Swansea City last time out, with Collie coming into the starting XI.
The Bluebirds' first chance came inside the opening 10 minutes through a dangerous corner played in towards Nieve Jenkins, who battled Ferry keeper Charlotte Merry in the air, with the ball then dropping to Shannon Evans in the box, whose effort was blocked on the half turn.
But the first attempt at goal came from Briton Ferry’s Witts, who attempted a long-range free-kick, which was dipping towards Ceryn Chamberlain’s goal, but the keeper did well to tip the ball over the bar.
Chamberlain was key once again after Ferry won a penalty in the 17th minute, who guessed the right way, diving to her left to deny Lucy Powell from the spot.
However, the visitors took the lead after the half hour mark following Powell’s corner, which was diverted into the net by Ridings at the back post.
City almost responded instantly, as Evans had two efforts go close from corners, rising above the defenders, but unable to guide them on target.
Ferry doubled their lead after the break through Witts, who was played in by Laura-May Walkley to grab their second.
City never wavered though, continuing to create opportunities and coming close through Fiona Barry and Laura Curnock.
It was last season’s top scorer Collie who stepped up to half the deficit, after some great play on the right wing by Molly Kehoe to beat the defender and send in the cross, the ball fell to Collie who put her foot through the ball and went in via the underside of the bar.
Chances continued to fall for City, but it was Collie on hand again to grab the equaliser deep into stoppage time to rescue a point for the Bluebirds.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 2-2 BRITON FERRY LLANSAWEL
Cardiff City Women: Chamberlain, Owen, S Evans, Bowen (c), Jenkins, Price, Billingham (Walklett 66’), Kehoe, Barry, Curnock, Collie. Subs Not Used: Phelps, G Evans, Parsons, Bull.
Briton Ferry Llansawel: Merry, Broadley (Roberts 73’), Llewellyn, Ridings (c), Denscombe, Jenkins, Powell (Kearle 73’), Owen, Richardson, Walkley (Smitham 79’) Witts (Cook 82’). Subs Not Used: Welch.
REACTION | IAIN DARBYSHIRE
After the full-time whistle, head coach Darbyshire said: “It was a hard-fought point. Massive credit to Briton Ferry, I thought they were set-up really well. I don’t think we should be over the moon with a point. We need to demand better standards and be better across the park and be more consistent through the 90 minutes. We knew what their game plan was going to be, and they outfought us and played really well at times and I think they deserved a point. We rode our luck a little bit in the end with the goal, but these are the things you get sometimes in the season.
“You’ve got to want to win and want to compete. When you are challenged physically, can you stand up and be accounted for and it’s something we’re learning as a team. Again, credit to Briton Ferry, their game plan was very good and it’s what we expected but we didn’t deal with it the way we should have. So, we’ll take the point and come the end of the season, it could be huge for us.”
REACTION | ELIZA COLLIE
Striker Collie, who netted a brace, added: “We knew we didn’t play particularly well; we came in at half time and knew we weren’t at our best, but we’ll take the point. We all spoke as a team before the coaches came in at half time and we knew it wasn’t good enough and we knew it wasn’t up to our normal standard. The message was that to go out there and if we want to win it’s up to us. We don’t want to draw, we want to win, but we’ll take that and move forward.
“It was a great feeling [to score], I knew I needed to score as I only had one so far but getting these two under my belt is good and I’m just hoping to score more now this season.”