Watford Ladies FC’s New Year picked up where the old one left off with a number of matches cancelled because of the weather. But there was a well-deserved win for the U14 Warriors in the wind and rain at Parmiter’s School against Rugby Borough Women in the Junior Premier League.
In their best performance of the season,
Watford were on the front foot from the whistle. After four shots in the first four minutes, they went ahead through a penalty won by Tierney O’Gorman and converted by Enya Brewster. Just before half-time O’Gorman got onto the scoresheet with an assist from Laila Greaves to double their lead.
The second half started with a third goal, this time Brewster setting up Eva Leahy with a neat pass. It was quickly followed by the fourth as a Chase Bembridge corner was slotted home by Brewster. A late consolation goal on the break from Rugby made the final score 4-1 to the Warriors.
The U18 Hornets put on a fine display at home to St Albans City in the Hertfordshire Girls Partnership League. The first goal came after Sofia Maltese delivered a cross to Eva Baana who cut the ball back to Izzy Horgan to slot home. Twenty minutes later, India Dowse’s corner found Simi Saggar whose shot was blocked, but the ball fell to Roma Guerra who turned and fired into the roof of the net for the Hornets’ second.
After the break, Horgan scored again after running down the wing onto Baana’s cross-field ball and sending a looping shot past the keeper. St. Albans fought back with two goals in quick succession but after Maltese pressed their defence into the corner, their clearance only reached Baana who cut inside and scored with a long range shot from over 20 yards out to seal a convincing 4-2 win.
Player of the Match was Daisy Laing for a commanding and muddy display in the centre of defence.
The U13 Warriors recorded an emphatic 8-nil away win at South Glos RTC whilst there were draws for the U12, U15 and U16 Warriors in the JPL.