14th November 2016
Cheltenham come from behind twice in 3-2 win over Maidenhead
By Jack Watson, University of Gloucestershire Media Graduate.
Holly Rogers’ dramatic winner sealed a brave performance by Cheltenham Town Ladies FC who twice came from behind to beat Maidenhead United and claim their second league win of the season.
Jenn Brown-Wealls and Ella Hitchcox both scored to cancel out the visitor’s lead in a closely contested win which was sealed in the 85th minute by Rogers who made the most of some indecisive defending to score her first FA WPL goal.
Cheltenham started well but found themselves behind after ten minutes as Maidenhead’s clinical break resulted in a close range shot that goalkeeper Bec Panniers got a hand to but couldn’t turn it away.
Panniers remained busy for the rest of the first half and made crucial saves to keep the hosts in the game.
After half time Cheltenham increased the pressure on Maidenhead’s defence and won a penalty through Hitchcox’s tricky play. Club captain Brown-Wealls stepped up and smashed it in the top left corner to level the score on 67 minutes.
The Robins quickly found themselves a goal down again as Maidenhead took advantage of some ball-watching in the Cheltenham ranks as a long free kick forward was turned in from close range.
Goals were aplenty with the hosts instantly replying when Hitchcox rose highest from a corner in the 74th minute to level the score to two each.
Both sides were pushing for a third goal but it was Cheltenham who got the winner when 16-year-old Rodgers stole the ball from the hesitant defence to make it 3-2 in the 84th minute.
All proceedings from match was donated to the Royal British Legion raising over £200 for the charity on Remembrance Sunday.
View from the dugout
Cheltenham manager Graham Fletcher “Today was fantastic. We stuck at it and I thought that we deserved the win to be honest we created so many chances and we had so much possession it was unbelievable.
“I’ve got to give credit to Holly who has come up from the development side and she took her chance well and won the game for us. Everybody played well today.
“We’ll try get ourselves in the county cup quarter-finals see if we can win that one and then we’ve just got to keep making progress. I think we have a squad that want to play and that’s the most important thing.”
What next for Cheltenham?
Cheltenham’s next game is a trip to Bristol on the 20th November for their County cup match against AEK Boco.
