7th January 2020
CTLFC Reserves 13
Weston 0
Goals: Wadey 2’, 42’, 53’, Fenton 9’, 74’, 75’, 81’, Griffiths 29’, Marron 47’, 84’, 90+‘, Marshall 61’, Galpin 80’
Weston-s-Mare:
Written by Erica Holford
Returning after the Christmas and New Year break saw CTLFC Reserves head into a match with little preparation the week before. However this didn’t seem to affect the team, as they ran in thirteen goals in a drubbing which saw them achieve the highest goal difference in the league.
The game started off with a string of early corners from Cheltenham with less than a min on the clock. After keeping the pressure on, the third corner lead to Cheltenham being 1-0 up in the opening minutes, with a nice finish from Jess Wadey who managed to get on the end of a Elle-Mae Simpson flick.
This was followed by another from Fenton on the 9th minute after some back and forth exchanges in the midfield. A misplaced pass back to the Weston goalkeeper sat just well enough for Fenton (pictured) to get there first and steer it past the shot stopper.
Caitlin Marron, Sophie Griffiths and the lively Fenton tested Weston keeper, forcing some good stops. Eventually Griffiths was provided an opportunity after a well-weighted ball forward was just right and she was able to slot past the rushing goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
Shortly before half time, Jess Wadey would be at it again. This time she found the net from distance after a good passage of play.
Cheltenham would keep the pressure on the visitors, and would win another series of corner kicks in close succession, none of which would be steered towards goal.
Cheltenham would have one more sniff at goal as Marron raced through but some good backtracking by the Weston defence kept her out at the expense of a corner.
Wadey almost made it a hattrick from the threatening ball from wide but the danger was lashed away and the half would end 4-0.
Half Time: CTLFC Dev 4-0 Weston
With just two minutes on the clock, Marron opened up the second half with her first of the game. Closing in on goal from the left, she was able to find the net at the far post, in what looked like a true slow motion cinematic goal.
Moments later she would pose a threat again to the visiting defence as she rattled the crossbar from the edge of the box – one of wwo crossbar hits from the Robinesses in a space of 10 mins!
Jess Wadey would complete her hattrick after one-way traffic. Weston, unable to get out of their own half from goalkicks, saw Wadey find the time and space to pick her spot, and she found the net from the edge of the penalty area.
A rolling substitution would soon see the replacements get in on the act. Hannah Marshall joining the game and three minutes later putting her own name up in lights.
The ball fell to her on the edge of the box, and she was given enough time to turn and fire a shot, which no keeper in the world would have stopped.
Holly Fenton would bag herself a brace with a cool finish inside the area, before less than a minute later making it a hattrick, as she burst into the Weston penalty area, and managed to slip the ball past goalkeeper to make it nine for the hosts.
Not to be outdone, midfield maestro, Hannah Galpin, got her name on the sheet. A ball into the box received a good bounce on The Big Local Stadium surface which caught the goalkeeper cold, finding the net at the far post.
The less than a minute later, after Weston had restarted by pumping the ball long into the Cheltenham half, Holly Fenton would chalk up her fourth, working her way through the defence and passing the goalkeeper to tap in and make it eleven.
Three minutes later Marron was emulating her forward partner, dancing weaving her way past the Weston defence before scoring a confident low drive.
With the clock in the red, she bagged her own hattrick, the third of the day for the Robinesses, as she again danced her way through the visibily defeated Weston defence before tapping home.
Cheltenham: M. Ripley, B. Young, E. Simpson, N. Sullivan, A. Symanowski, J. Lepore, H. Galpin, J. Wadey, S. Griffiths. C. Marron, H. Fenton.
Rolling substitutes: A. Boyce, A. Barker, H. Marshall, H. Dix
Reaction
“Today for us was about getting back playing and doing the right things which I think we did. We moved the ball really well and the link up play with the strikers was really good and we’ve got thirteen goals from it. Ok, they might have given us a couple near the end, but we still need to be in the right places to score them and that’s something we did really well today.
“I said to the girls, regardless of whether we beat them by ten like last time, or by one, we still need to apply ourselves in the right way and today was all about what we wanted to do and what we needed to do, and we set a couple of hard challenges before the game and the girls have risen to that and we’ve scored thirteen. We need to keep challenging ourselves now because we need to replicate that in the coming fixtures to make sure we keep pushing at the top of the table.
“The consistency is key. Previously, before Christmas, we’ve gone two or three game run and then we’ll lose a game or have a sub-par performance, so consistency is the key word right now. We’ve got a good momentum by scoring a lot of goals, and getting the girls’ confidence up but we have to make sure we don’t undo it by giving a poor performance next time out. It’s all about us now replicating today’s showing again, and again and again, making sure we improve on it.”
