11th March 2019
Match report by Bobby Vincent of UoG.
Georgia Brown scored four as Cheltenham Town Ladies returned to winning ways comfortably beating Poole Town Ladies 6-2 at the Cheltenham Civil Service ground.
Brown hit two in the first-half and doubled her tally in the second-half, with Abby Bevan hitting her first goal for the side and Ella Hitchcox also scoring for the Robins.
The conditions were very tricky to play in, with high gusts of winds having a huge impact on the flight of the ball.
But the home side were still able to produce some excellent attacking moves and took the lead on just six minutes.
Brown intercepted the ball on the edge of the Poole box and placed the ball beautifully into the bottom-left corner.
Just two minutes later, and the hosts doubled their advantage. Sam Morris and Sally Butterfield combined on the right side before playing the ball to Bevan to complete a great move.
The struggling Poole were dreading another hammering after the 7-0 loss back in October at the hands of the Robins.
The visitors did reply, though, completely against the run of play. A counter-attack was nicely finished perhaps due to some complacency from Cheltenham.
It was game on in Gloucestershire, but Brown was in bullish mood. She soon doubled her tally, volleying the ball in after a fantastic corner from Annie Martin.
It was a relatively dominant first-half from the hosts, but the game was still finely poised going into the break.
However, an excellent speedy run from Hitchcox ended in the tricky winger being brought down in the box.
Brown thumped the ball home from 12-yards for her hat-trick, but Poole offered another swift reply.
Morris brought down the attacker and the visitors had a penalty and they found another way past Bec Panniers in the Cheltenham goal.
But Brown once again shone to score her fourth. It was her best one yet; cutting in from the left-hand side with some clever footwork before curling one into the bottom right corner.
There was time for one more for the hosts, when Ellie Briscoe’s tremendous through ball found Hitchcox, who was never going to be caught, and she slotted the sixth in very calmly.
Robins boss Alex Cheal was delighted with his team’s response after being beaten 6-2 by Keynsham Town last weekend.
“(It was) so important (to get back to winning ways),” Cheal insisted. “The result last week was very frustrating.
“I told the girls after last week’s game that we got it wrong, in terms of our set-up. But today it was so important to win again.
“We played really well at times, and scored some nice goals. We did it in a very professional way and I’m delighted with that.”
Cheltenham are in GFA Women’s Trophy action next Sunday away to Almondsbury before returning to the League on the 24 March, when they travel down to table-topping Southampton Women’s.
Team: Panniers, Leask (Wiltshire), Dolloway, Morris, Bevan, Brown (Hateley), Wilkins, Butterfield (Ellis), Hitchcox, Briscoe, Martin. Subs unused: Fensome, Knuckey.