Coventry City Ladies 4-1 Loughborough Students
10th December 2006
Midlands Combination League
Christine Wheeler reports
Coventry City Ladies went into their Christmas league break with a 4-1 win over Loughborough Students on a cold, wet and windy Sunday at Westwood Heath, the previous night's rain turning the pitch into a bog, making running and passing extremely difficult.
The visitors had most of the early possession, but it was Coventry's Sinead Wade who opened the scoring on 18 minutes for her 12th league goal of the season, beating the keeper in a one-on-one situation.
Loughborough's Jen Anison made things level when she scored with two minutes of the first half remaining. Her first close range effort was parried by goalie Kerry Williamson, but could do nothing to prevent the second shot going in.
Coventry came quickest out of the blocks for the second half with the breakthrough coming on fifty-two minutes when Emma Lipman bundled the ball into the net from close range.
Kelly-Ann Willis made it 3-1 with a goal she helped set up herself. The left winger sent a beautifully floated pass to Wade on the right, who then passed it back for the 17 year old to drive into the bottom left hand corner.
The win was wrapped up by substitute Sarah Marshall when her sliding shot from just outside the area trickled in off the left hand post to make it 4-1.
Afterwards, Coventry manager Stuart Wilson admitted that the weather had been quite a problem for the players: “We had to adjust, battle and fight. It was a game that wasn't going to be easy because of the weather. The wind really helped in the second half because it was against them [Loughborough]”.
wCoventry City: Kerry Williamson, Helen Dermody, Jenny Lowe, Maria Cartwright, Natasha Lynch, Alison Forbes (Kelly Henson, 67), Kirsty Robson (Natalie Brace, 73), Emma Lipman, Mel Byrne, Sinead Wade (Sarah Marshall, 73), Kelly-Ann Willis. Subs Not Used: Natalie Wilcox