Workington Reds Ladies put up a fine performance in defeat when they lost away 2-1 to Mancunian Unity Ladies.
The Reds travelled down the M6 in full knowledge that they faced one of their toughest away games of the season. Mancunian Unity have had a great start to their Life in the North West Women’s Regional Division 1 and are the only team with an 100 per cent league record still intact.
To add to that, they have already claimed some impressive scalps in the process and they have made progress in both the County and FA Cup competitions, facing Newcastle Ladies FC on Sunday in the latter.
The home side started the game off with the level of confidence you’d expect from their impressive season’s figures.
Sharp football, crisp movement and a keenness to press forward were all evident from the home side as they took the game to the visiting Reds Ladies.
The pressure was persistent and the visiting defensive duties of Laura Miller, Alice Kemp, Naomi Foster, Holly Redmond and Natalie Hooper were put under periods of significant length.
However, they stood strong and frustrated the home side with their energy and desire to defend their goal. In fact, a dogged determination and a desire to work hard for each other was evident across the full squad for the full 90 minutes of game time.
The pressure exerted by the Home side eventually paid off in a somewhat fortuitous fashion in the 30th minute. A ball in from the right had looked to be being dealt with by Redmond before she was bundled to the floor from behind, leaving Celeste Gordon to poke the ball home to open the scoring.
The visitors claims for a foul on Redmond had sadly fallen on deaf ears and the goal stood.
The traffic was not all in one direction with releases to Hayley Bracken and Hannah Geen being delivered from the midfield of Bea Barber, Helen Wagstaff, Linzi Donaldson and Hannah Ridgewell.
Bracken forced the Unity keeper Beth Harvey into a couple of saves from distance as well as making her work from a well met corner.
The half finished with the home side leading by a single goal and with a certain level of frustration from the visitors.
The Ladies fell foul to a second cruel goal in the early minutes of the second half in an incident that resulted in the end of the game for the Reds captain Naomi Foster.
Foster was tracking back to cover a run from Ella Barnes, as the two came close together, Barnes clearly pushed Foster away with an outstretched arm resulting in Foster taking a heavy fall to the floor at full speed.
The referee decided to let play continue and Barnes crossed to find Liz Ince backing up who finished from close range to extend their lead.
This seemed to spark a fire in the bellies of the visitors and from that point on the Reds grew to a point where they dominated the latter stages of the game.
In the 70th minute, a free-kick from Redmond found Geen in behind the line. Geen steadied and delivered a telling cross into the box which was missed by the home defenders.
Fortunately for the Reds, Laura Ivison was backing up on the back post and her calm finish found the back of the net for her first competitive goal for the Ladies.
As the game entered the last ten minutes the home side were hanging on to their lead. Bracken was released down the left and a decent effort at goal was collected by the well positioned Harvey.
Barber’s industrious work down the right resulted in her cross finding the ever willing Rowan Williams in a great position centrally. The youngster met the ball well enough, but sadly had to watch it fly agonisingly over the cross bar.
Hayley Bracken was awarded the Reds Player of the Game award for her hard work leading the line.
After the game manager Paul Mackenzie said: “I can’t thank the lasses enough for what they have shown today. Our performance was about grit, determination and what it means to represent the club.
“Being honest, it would be impossible for me to pick a single player out for praise above the others. Every player contributed to a cracking performance against a very, very good team.”
“A draw would have been a nice result but for me our rewards from a team perspective were far greater. We now need to build on that and take the same intensity in to every game we play in.”
