FOOTBALL
DROITWICH Spa Ladies were delighted to prove a point as they recorded a fifth successive win by defeating Worcester United Ladies 3-2 on Sunday.
Despite falling behind early on, Droitwich snatched victory through Lucy Solloway’s last-gasp goal.
The Spa women had suffered an opening day defeat to Worcester and had been desperate for revenge.
They began brightly but Worcester struck first in the seventh minute when Spa ‘keeper, Beth Roberts, was unable to keep out a Carli Smith free-kick.
The home team failed to let this early setback deter them from their game plan and they equalised on 16 minutes. Katie Armento played a short corner to Ellie Gerhold who crossed to the far post for Melissa Curnock to head home and put Spa back on level terms.
Three minutes later, Armento latched onto an April Polden pass to smash the ball past the Worcester ‘keeper and into the roof of the net to give Droitwich a 2-1 lead.
The second half saw both teams continuing to play well in what was a game of good quality in very testing pitch conditions.
Worcester got back on level terms when Lucy Edwards shot past Roberts into the far corner of the Droitwich goal.
But, for the remainder of the game, Droitwich become increasingly dominant. Polden forced a good save from the Worcester ‘keeper, Gerhold fired over and Droitwich player of the match, Charleigh Stanaway, hit the post.
The match looked sure to be heading for a draw when, with just one minute remaining, second half substitute, Solloway slid the ball into the Worcester net to clinch a well-deserved Droitwich win.
Droitwich manager, Ian Fry, said: “When we played Worcester in our opening match it was hard to imagine us playing any worse than we did that day and the girls and I have been looking forward to having the opportunity to make up for that poor performance.
“This time, my players played really well against a good Worcester team. We were well organised and the girls played fantastically both individually and collectively.”
