Match Report | West 1 - 2 Darwen
North West Womens Regional League, Saturday 8 November
We slipped down to 5th in the NWWRFL Premier Division on Sunday with a 2-1 defeat at home to bogey side Darwen at Brookburn Road.
The visitors have traditionally been tough opponents, and triumphed by the same scoreline in our last meeting back in March, although we claimed all three points on the visitors’ last trip to M21 in December last year.
We went into the game in decent form having won three of the last four, including a 7-2 win over Mossley Hill last time out, and looked set to continue that with some positive momentum in the early stages.
Beth Wilson capitalised on some of this momentum and struck first thanks to some confusion at the back. She won the ball off a retreating defender, and ran clear to curl home a good finish, with the Darwen defence stood watching and calling for a free-kick that was never to come, Beth wheeling away in celebration.
We kept pushing throughout the first half, but couldn’t quite keep the momentum up and struggled to keep the visitors at bay as they grew and grew into the game. They failed to take advantage of these, facing Cara Pestell in goal on her second West debut after recently re-signing on dual-registration from Blackburn Rovers.
After the break, however, Darwen didn’t have to wait long before an equaliser through Emily Yeoman, who capitalised on some good work from the winger to beat Bracegirdle, and found Yeoman who fired in a great effort from the corner of the box.
15 minutes later they were at it again with a good passing move giving Kyra Lindsay the chance to round Pestell and slot home.
West put in a good shift to try and get back into the game, with a triple sub just after the goal, but in truth never really got going in the second half, and Darwen took a deserved three points back to Lancashire. We have a break in league action with a friendly against Wythenshawe to look forward to this weekend, followed by a return to M21 against Crewe on the 22nd.