Spits fired to top of league.
Copy from Swindon Spitfires.
Swindon Spitfires moved two points clear at the top of the South West Women’s League Premier Division following Sunday’s 2-0 win over Downend Flyers, their third win on the trot.
After a fairly even opening half hour in which the only chances of note were Downend’s Hayley Bullock testing keeper Julia Caton with a long range shot, and Spitfires’ Suze Berry glancing a Katie Wadey cross wide.
Thereafter Spitfires started to dominate, an Emma Skinner free kick on 31 minutes fell kindly to Jenny Jones who brushed the side netting with her shot, and four minutes later Berry was set free by Skinner’s through ball but keeper Zoe Hodgson was quickly out to smother it.
Karyn Coombs then fired just over two minutes before the interval from a Morgan Whitaker knock down before Berry was denied from another through ball by a defender sliding in to put the ball behind for a corner.
Spitfires continued to press their opponents in the second period with the majority of the play in the Downend half. On 50 minutes Hodgson was again quick to deny Coombs after a Debbie Rose chipped pass cleared the Downend defence, and Coombs went close a minute later from a Wadey cross.
Rose tried her luck with a long-range effort on 55 minutes before the visitors defence was finally breached a minute later. Whitaker met a Hodgson goal kick and directed her powerful header to Berry who tricked her way past the keeper before rolling the ball home.
Spitfires doubled their advantage in the 58th minute when the unlucky Coombs saw her chip-shot come back off the bar with Hodgson beaten, but thankfully the alert Wadey quickly latched onto the loose ball and slotted home through the keepers’ legs.
Another chance fell to Wadey two minutes later but her shot was parried and Hodgson did well to recover to save the rebound on her line at the feet of Berry.
Spitfires’ defence never looked in danger with very little getting past the central pairing of Jenny Gray and Emily Sparkes, while right back Beth Turner was always a threat pushing forward. Behind them Caton had little to do, a comfortable save from a Downend free-kick on 70 minutes being the closest the visitors came.
Spitfires were somehow denied a penalty when Coombs was clearly clattered in the area in the 83rd minute, and then Anna Higgins fired just wide from a Skinner cross.
The final chance came in the last minute when a high cross from Higgins found Hannah Gulliver at the far post but Hodgson denied her with a fantastic point-blank save.
The two teams face each other again next week, this time in the first qualifying round of the FA Women’s Cup, with a 2pm kick off at Highworth Town FC.
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