West Herts 0 – Brentwood 2

The ladies 1’s travelled to West Herts this week hoping to build on their performance last week and secure another win. Brentwood started the game strongly and immediately applied pressure on the West Herts defence with Nikki Brimson winning a short corner in the first 5 minutes. A solid first strike from Ruth Tilsley was narrowly missed at the post however this gave Brentwood the confidence to step up the pressure. Their break came after 15 minutes, when a strong run into the dee from joint player of the match Charlotte Holt found a West Herts foot and Brentwood were awarded another short corner. Nat Gilder slipped the ball wide to Brimson whos initial deflection was saved but the ball fell to Holt on the far post who slotted the ball in. Following this lead Brentwood started to utilize the space and Shirley Osmotherly and Anna Guida were able to make some strong attacking runs. Brentwood extended their lead 5 minutes from half time when Louise Humphreys found space on the right hand side, she passed the ball to Lauren Simmons at the top of the dee who beat the player and made a pass to an open Lucy Partridge on the post who calmly converted to finish the half 2-0 up.

The second half started with a change in formation for Brentwood due to an injury and West Herts took advantage of this with some tight marking and lot of pressure going forward. It wasn’t long before West Herts won a short corner following a Brentwood foot in the dee, however some great defending by runners Anna Guida and Sandy Pass stopped them from getting the shot off. The pressure from West Herts continued and Brentwood found themselves in an overload situation a number of times with West Herts hunting for that goal, however some fantastic goalkeeping by joint player of the match Lorna Parsons kept West Herts at bay. West Herts almost found their break 10 minutes from time when an unmarked player managed to get a strong shot off, however a diving save from Parsons stopped the initial shot and Haylee Adams was able to clear the ball out of the dee to Lisa Payne out wide who smashed the ball up field to ease the pressure on Brentwood. Brentwood did create a couple more opportunities going forward but they were unable to convert and the game finished with a 2-0 win for Brentwood.