14th September 2018
Cheltenham Town Ladies returned to the top of the FA WNL South West Division last night with a convincing 2-0 away to Swindon Town.
Facing a young Swindon side, Cheltenham themselves fielded a squad with four teenagers but it was experienced midfielder Louise Fensome (pictured) that ran the show from midfield.
Cheltenham started brightly and took the game to their opponents. After a good opening spell, Annie Martin created space for his strile to find the bottom left hand corner and add to her already impressive tally of ten goals. Together with Ella Hitchox the two forwards caused the home defence endless problems and after Hitchcox was unlucky with several chances she finally scored the important second goal just before half time.
Lucy Durham and Sally Butterfield were excellent on the wings while the defence of Walters, Leask and Purvis stood firm at every Swindon attack.
The first half had seen the Ladies play some of their best football this season and Fensome and Becky Wilkins were dominant in the middle while Bec Panniers had little to do between the posts.
The second half didn’t quite live up the expectations of the first but again Cheltenham dominated with little end product. The Ladies even missed the opportunity to stretch their lead when captain Sarah Walters blazed her penalty kick over the bar.
Manager Alex Cheal commented: “We wanted to regain the top spot and we have done so with a fine performance. Swindon had been buoyed by their win against Poole but we started positively and controlled the game from the off. Every player paid a huge part in this win.”
Team: Panniers, Walters (C), Leask, Purvis, Butterfield (Dance), Fensome, Wilkins (Wyatt), Durham, Hitchcox, Martin, Knuckey (Brown).
