22nd August 2016
Cheltenham Town Ladies battled hard but lost their season’s opening match 4-0 away to an excellent Chichester City side.
The game started with the home side on the front foot, really testing our defence to the maximum. Chichester created a few really good chances early on, and without their excellent goalkeeper, Bec Panniers, we would have conceded early. Despite the pressure, we created our own chances, with Ella Hitchcox going close on a couple of occasions.
Panniers pulled off some ‘world class saves’.
However, on 27 minutes, Chichester took the lead, with a close range shot after we failed to clear a corner.
Half time Chichester City 1 Cheltenham Town 0
The 2nd half started with the home side pressing strongly, but we worked hard and defended resolutely. Again we created chances, but Chichester playing confidently and finally made the game theirs with a second goal after 70 minutes, and two late goals made the final score 4-0.
I thought we worked really hard, I felt if we had equalised things might have been different, but you have to take your chances. Chichester are a very good side, they pass it well. We didn’t really do that as well as we could, so that’s something to work on, but the players’ attitude and commitment was spot on.
Graham Fletcher, Manager
