The Shots Ladies entertained Southampton Ladies at Farnborough Gate on Sunday 21st October 2007. After a good result last week at home to Reading Ladies in the cup, The Shots needed to get their league campaign back on track.
The Shots again started brightly, forcing Southampton on the back foot; this was going be a tougher test with Southampton being more physical. A midfield battle was being waged between both midfield players and slowly The Shots were coming out on top, with some tough tackling from Ireland and North.
In the eighth minute, the ball was won in the midfield and spread out to the left for Wallman to control and cross for Kagbo to hit pass the Southampton goalkeeper 1-0. Southampton started to press, but found it hard to get past the defence of Coles, Grover, and Giberson. If they did get the long ball over the defence, the Shots keeper Calder was there to snuff out any threat.
The Shots pressed again with Hann, Wallman and Kagbo coming close. On 30 minutes the ball was pushed out to the right side, Giberson collected the ball, skipped past one player, looked up and found Wallman who had perfectly run from deep to chest the ball down and place her shot into the right hand corner.
With The Shots taking the game to Southampton, The Shots went a further goal ahead just before half time. On 43 minutes, a Southampton move was cleared by Coles.
The ball found Wallman, who thread the ball to Kagbo (who was slightly offside but missed by the Southampton linesman), raced clear of the defence and fired high into the net. At half-time The Shots went in at the break 3-0 up.
After the break it was similar to the first half with the midfield battle taking place, Southampton had a couple of efforts, which saw one fly over the bar and Calder save easily at the near post. The Shots pushed forward and come close on a number of times, with one effort cleared off the line from Kagbo.
After 59 minutes, The Shots scored their fourth goal. Calder cleared to Coles, who headed on to Ireland. Ireland played it through to Hann who turned and chipped the Southampton defence, Kagbo raced on to it chased by a Southampton defender. The Southampton defender took Kagbo out, but the ball found Wallman, and with the referee playing the advantage, Wallman collected the ball and fired past the keeper.
As the game came to the end, The Shots finished off the game with a fine one-touch move. Donoghue started the move on the left of midfield, passed on to Meredith who played in North. North played a neat one-two with Hann and the Shots skipper calmly slotted pass the keeper. Final Score 5-0
Player of the Match goes to Laura Wallman
The Gaffer's View
"We knew this would be a greater test from the week before and Southampton showed that they could be a more physical team. The girls knew what they had to do and again showed great character not only as a team, but also as a squad. It is nice to have a near complete squad fit again. I think this season we are working more as a unit and have worked hard on this in training, and over the last couple of weeks have proved it with the clean sheets.
Calder, Smith (D Shepherd 69"), Giberson, Coles, Grover, McDonald (Meredith 89"), North, Ireland (Donoghue 82") Wallman, Kagbo, Hann
Goals:
Kagbo 8", 43", Wallman 30", 59", North 90"+4