17th February 2017
Cheltenham Town Ladies got back to winning ways as they eased past Exeter City Ladies 4-1 in the Women’s Premier League.
Match report by Lawrence Taylor, University of Gloucestershire Media Graduate
Petersfield Park was the location once again following the last home game having a change of venue.
The girls managed to get off to a fast start as they went on the attack from the first whistle. Fensome played a ball down the line to Hitchcox who slid in Wiltshire (pictured) for the first chance of the game, but the Exeter goalkeeper got a hand on the ball to push it onto the post and out behind for a corner.
The resulting corner was whipped in by Salleh and was headed into the back of the net by an unmarked Fensome for a deserved Cheltenham lead.
The Robins continued to dominate possession and territory but Exeter looked dangerous on the counter. They finally found a gap in the Cheltenham defence and their pacey striker was able to level the score ups with a strike to the top corner.
Exeter weren’t level for long as Cheltenham’s dominance continued to prevail. A scuffed shot from Herbert found its way to Wiltshire who didn’t waste her chance and fired the ball into the back of the net.
Half time: Cheltenham Town Ladies 2 Exeter City Ladies 1
The second half started just as the first half ended with Cheltenham clearly on top.
Salleh found herself in some space and played a beautiful ball across the box to Wiltshire taking out most of the Exeter defence. Wiltshire once again showed her composure and secured her second goal of the game with a neat finish to the left of the goal.
Cheltenham made a couple of changes to bring some fresh legs on and these fresh legs paid off. Rogers was gifted the ball by the Exeter defence and then forced her way past the final defender to make the score 4-1 to the Robins.
A comprehensive victory for the ladies ahead of this weekend’s fixture against Bristol Union in the Cup. Cheltenham will be looking to continue their good run of form at home having won all four of their fixtures at Petersfield Park in 2017.
Bec Panniers (goalkeeper), Jade Wiltshire, Jen Brown-Wealls (captain), Amy Leask, Naomi Purvis,Rose Knuckey, Libbie Herbert, Louise Fensome, Ria Salleh, Suze Berry, Sophie Wyatt, Ella Hitchcox, Rosie Herbert, Kayla Garland,Holly Rogers.
