Winscombe Ladies enjoyed an excellent warm-up to the second half of the league season with victory over Bath Buccaneers.

Bath Buccaneers 3rd XI 1

Winscombe Ladies 1st XI 2

A fast and furious start to the second half of the season as this quality friendly provided a good warm-up for both teams as Winscombe Ladies travelled away to play Bath Buccaneers 3rd XI.

From the start, Winscombe worked together as a team with forwards Izzy Savage, Gabby Richardson and Hannah Taylor putting pressure on the Bath Buccs’ defence.

While both teams counter-attacked with determination, the Winscombe defence of keeper Katie Walker, Juju O’Sullivan, Michelle Isgar, Charlie Phillips and Michelle Clarke-McCulloch thwarted the Bath Buccs attempts on goal, leaving the match scoreless at the half-time break.

Bath were first off the mark from the centre pass with a quick attack on the Winscombe goal to open up the scoring with a fine finish.

Undaunted, Winscombe re-doubled their efforts and with renewed vigour and hard-work across the whole team, a passage of play between the midfield of Sarah Holland, Emily Townsend and Leanne Gardner, who had worked hard to track-back and defend, win possession and then mount an attack which saw Hannah Bapty on the forward line tuck the ball away to bring the match level.

Further pressure was applied to the Bath goal, the Winscombe forwards put together some excellent attacking play resulting in Winscombe taking the lead when Emily Townsend pounced on a rebound to bury Winscombe’s second goal.

Winscombe almost increased their lead in the dying minutes of the match, however the goal was disallowed by the umpire due to an apparent Winscombe foot in the D.

John Hodge Solicitors player of the match was Charlie Phillips.

Winscombe Ladies 3rd XI 2

Marlborough Ladies 2nd XI 6

Winscombe thirds opened the second half of their season with a league match against the team lying in third place in the table.

This was an encouraging team performance, in spite of the scoreline, which saw Winscombe defend strongly against a free-scoring side, and counter-attacking to score a couple of good goals themselves.

Although the two teams were well-matched in midfield, it was the quality of the Marlborough forwards and their clinical runs and finishing that was the difference between the two sides.

The match started with Winscombe under the cosh as intense pressure resulted in a couple of early goals for the visitors. However, Winscombe dug deep, making life difficult for Marlborough, forcing them to turn-over possession on many occasions and resulting in some good Winscombe attacks into the D.

One such attack involved a long pass from Gail Izzard which found Becky Matthews, who linked well with Jazz Honour to create some excellent space for Matthews to score Winscombe’s first goal to bring the score to 2-1.

Midfielders Maddie Bawden, Elener Phillips, Tracey Stokes and captain Gill Harvey pressed the ball well in the Marlborough half forcing them into hurried passes and picking up the loose balls. Phillips in particular mounted some excellent attacks from left-midfield to set the forwards off towards goal.

The Winscombe defence held strong for long periods of the match, with excellent work from Jo Hann, Tia Rendall and Georgina Glossop coupled with outstanding goal keeping from player of the match Georgia Tulip.

Helen Sinclair filled in at right defence towards the end of the match and made two goal-line saves, while a good attacking move saw a linking move between Izzard and Emma Whitehead, resulting in a long pass to Matthews who laid off a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Bawden to score Winscombe’s second.

Ultimately it was the strength and skill of the Marlborough forwards who were the difference in this encounter. They made some excellent penetrating runs and finished their shots clinically which brought the score to 6-2 when they were awarded and converted a penalty flick in the last few minutes.

The Quilter Cheviot player of the match was Georgia Tulip.

Winscombe Ladies 4th XI 1

Westberries Ladies 5th XI 4

After an extended Christmas break, the 4th XI started the second half of the season with a friendly game against Westberries 5th XI.

Play started positively with forwards, Hannah Glossop, Oceanne Shears and Sarah Kempster linking together to work the ball up the right side of the pitch, but some strong defending from Westberries pushed them back.

Played switched to the left with Katie Semple and Anya Lawrence working hard to gain possession and take the play to Westberries. Winscombe won a penalty corner, but were unable to convert their opportunity.

Play ebbed and flowed in the middle for a while, but Westberries picked up their pace and worked the ball down the left and into Winscombe’s D. Good defence from Joeleen Dewey, Jo Sawtell and Lucy Knapman, kept the ball away from goal for a while, but they were unable to clear the ball quickly enough and Westberries took their chance well.

After the restart, the game was pretty even, but eventually the more experienced side were able to build some momentum and attacked the Winscombe goal.

They conceded a penalty corner which resulted in a high shot being blocked on the goal-line by a Winscombe player and a penalty flick being awarded which they took accurately to beat Shas Bricknell in goal making it 2-0 at half-time.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with another goal from open play for Westberries and then a flick being awarded as a Winscombe defender prevented a goal with her foot, which they converted to take them to 4-0.

But Winscombe didn’t give up and Lucy Kindred worked hard. This gave Winscombe a chance and Katie Bowskill applied good pressure to the Westberries goal. They were awarded a long corner, from which Caroline Glossop scored a well-deserved goal for Winscombe.

The Quilter Cheviot player of the match was Joeleen Dewey.