Tottenham Hotspur Ladies -

First Team reports 2004-05

In sweltering conditions Spurs Ladies made heavy weather of beating Banbury United in this WFA Cup First Qualifying Round tie at Fred Knights.

With the majority of the play and a whole host of chances, Tottenham failed to put the match beyond the Oxfordshire side and could have slipped up, but the team defended Tina Hills in the goal very well, meaning that she had a virtually untroubled afternoon.

The striking duo of Rosi Webb and Meroulla Lazarou caused all nature of problems for the United defenders and with three chances between them and Meroulla having another effort cleared off the line, the score-line could have already got underway before the first goal eventually arrived on 21 minutes.  Rosi latched onto a long ball over the heads of the back four and steered the ball past the previously unbeatable keeper for a lead that looked like it would be extended.

However, the Banbury keeper and the defence worked hard to keep Spurs out and the profligate finishing also kept the score the same at the break, despite good breaking midfield play from Jenny Homer and Samrawit Bereket, who both tested the goalie.

The second period followed much the same pattern, but this time, as well as the goalkeeper keeping the ball out of the net, the woodwork twice came to the visitors aid.  A great ball over the defender's head put Meroulla in for a fierce shot that went over the keeper, but crashed back off the bar in the 53rd minute.  With 70 minutes gone, the frame of the goal was rattled again, with Sarah Green rasping in a shot that bounced back off the foot of the right hand upright.

Substitute Gemma Coots brought the keeper into action with a couple of rising shots and the late introduction of Gill Blackmore saw her bring a good save out of the goalie with her feet and she nodded a Kelly Herrett free-kick across the face of goal with no-one there to convert it.

With the last kick of the game, Sarah Green's powerful 25-yarder was athletically tipped around the post by the Banbury United keeper and Spurs were through to the next round where they will travel to Hastings United or Luton Town Belles.

While the midfield and defence will be content with the way they prevented Banbury threatening the Spurs goal, the side will need to make more of the many chances they create if they are to progress further in this competition.  However, fielding one of the youngest ever Spurs Ladies teams to be put out by the club, including eight players who have come through the youth system at THLFC, there is still a lot to come from the side this season.

The First team got off to a winning start to their league programme with a very pleasing display against a tough Brentford side.

Opening the scoring Gill Blackmore notched the first league goal of the season, but the Bees battled back to bring the scores level.  A second strike by Gill saw Tottenham's lead restored and the team were starting to work well as a unit and created quite a few chances.

Two more of those were converted by the lively Meroulla Lazarou and Jenny Curtis scored the last goal of Spurs' five to round off a successful beginning for the senior ladies team.

Clapton Orient  1    Hendon  4    
Carshalton Athletic  1    Dagenham & Redbridge  2
London Womens  3    Long Lane  2

Awaiting match report.

Brentford  1    Clapton Orient  3
C.E.F.I.  3    Carshalton Athletic  1    
Dagenham & Redbridge  1    London Womens  0

Tottenham travelled to the South Coast to meet Hastings United in the Second Qualifying Round of the WFA Cup and returned home after a compelling performance gave them a 3-1 win.

The game started fairly evenly, with Tottenham settling down after some early Hastings pressure and the Ladies started playing some good football and had a few chances.  Then, after 23 minutes, there was a relatively straightforward pass back to goalie Tina Hills, who misjudged the pace of the ball.  Whilst waiting for the ball to roll into the penalty area to pick it up, the Hastings forward nipped in quickly to slide the ball home. 

Spurs continued to pressurise the home defence, playing neat passing football but wasted many of the chances that came their way.  In the 35th minute Handan Djoshkoun cleared the ball out of defence to Kerry Daniells, whose shot was deflected for a corner.  Following this Gemma Coots played a neat one-two with Sam Chase and squared the ball to Samrawit Bereket, who coolly rounded the goalie to out Spurs Ladies ahead at 2-1.

Gill Blackmore went close again in the 45th minute and then in the final seconds of the first half, Meroulla linked up well with the midfield and put the ball in the net, but her goal was ruled offside.

In the second half Spurs had to reshape as forward Sam Chase came off with an ankle injury.  She was replaced by Rosi Webb.  Spurs made light of the change and continued their attacking play that saw Gemma Coots, Sarah Green and Samrawit Bereket link to play some incisive football, but there was no finish as the ball rolled across the face of the goal.

It wasn't all one way traffic at this stage, as, Hastings broke away in the 60th minute, but good cover by Handan forced the striker to shoot off target.  Hastings pressed again, as they tried to get back into the game, forcing Tina to make a fingertip save in the 65th minute to deny what was a certain goal and atone for her earlier error.

Spurs Ladies' concentration was on trying to get back to their passing game, but some loose passing gave Hastings further opportunities that were denied by a determined defence brilliantly marshalled by new captain Kelly Herrett.

In the 80th minute, Tottenham broke through the Hastings defence, but wasted another good opportunity. Spurs sealed their win in the 88th minute when after a period of pressure, substitute Rosi Webb latched on to through ball to finish empathically.

The score remained the same for the last couple of minutes, despite a free kick awarded to Hastings only five yards out for a deliberate back pass that Spurs defended to keep the home side from narrowing the margin of victory.

Manager Jackie Fearon said she was happy with the very satisfying victory by her young team that is developing well in the short time they have been together so far and hoped for a favourable draw in the next round with the team keen to progress as far as possible in this competition.

Carshalton Athletic  1    Hendon  2

The wet and windy conditions made playing good football difficult, but both sides put in some good moves with Spurs winning out with two second half goals.

The first half was scrappy as the wind swirled around and although Hendon put together some good passing moves, it was Spurs who made their keeper work with a couple of saves with her feet.  However, neither side could breach the defences and it was 0-0 at the break.

Into the second half, Hendon nearly broke through with a high bouncing ball that went over Tina Hills in goal and bounced off the crossbar.  Tina was called into action again when she made a good save and from the resulting corner, Hendon did not have anyone on hand to convert the ball across the face of goal.

From Spurs' first corner of the match, the elusive goal came.  Kerry Daniells put the ball into the goal mouth and as the ball was involved in a major scramble, it was cleared out to Gill Blackmore who hit it back where it had come from and gave Spurs a scrappy, but welcome goal.

In the 80th minute, Kerry Daniells fell and banged her head having to be replaced by Di Gardiner.  However, this did not upset the Spurs shape and in the final couple of minutes, Samrawit Bereket went on a run up the right, cut inside and the keeper saved her effort, but Samrawit was first to the loose ball and hit a shot into the top corner to wrap up a good 2-0 win for Jackie Fearon's ladies. 

C.E.F.I.  1    Clapton Orient  1
Brentford  1    London Womens  1    
Long Lane  1    Carshalton Athletic  2

Spurs had to wait until 30 minutes after the time the game was due to start before C.E.F.I. arrived from South London and were ready to start.  This delay and some good attacking put the visitors on the back foot and Rosi Webb opened the scoring for Tottenham on 20 minutes with a clinical finish of a low drive into the box, when she was released through the heart of the C.E.F.I. defence.  

The away team tried to get forward and produced a shot when one of their forwards got through, but a full length save from Tina Hills protected Tottenham's lead on 23 minutes.  As the game approached the half hour mark, a long Sarah Green cross to the far post was fumbled by the keeper and Gill Blackmore had a half-chance that went wide.

Ten minutes before the break, Spurs worked a good free-kick out to the left, where Gill headed on to Rosi and the keeper was brave to save at her feet and did the same to the rebound.  Two minutes later another Gill-Rosi combination produced a shot from Webb that the keeper did well to save high towards the angle of goalpost and crossbar.

Spurs lead at the interval, but the wind suddenly turned in C.E.F.I.'s favour and four minutes into the half, a long ball through the middle was chased by three offside looking forwards, one of whom shot high past Hills for the equaliser.

Clapton Orient  1    Dagenham & Redbridge  2
London Womens  5    Hendon  1
Carshalton Athletic  9    Brentford  1

Spurs travelled to Brentford missing key players Cas Brown and Gemma Coots, so had to reshuffle the team and suffered a bit of confusion in losing to the Bees.

Tottenham made a good start, with Samrawit Bereket shot across the face of goal in the first 10 minutes and then 15 minutes in, Rosi Webb was through on goal but the goalie saved with her feet.

Kelly Herrett cleared away a 20th minute Brentford corner and then a minute later at the other end, a Spurs corner resulted in a goalmouth scramble that was cleared by the Brentford defence.  Soon after Meroulla Lazarou was put in the clear by Sarah Greene, but shot just wide and further Spurs pressure built up, but with no reward as chances could not be converted.

Brentford threatened in the 35th minute when an attacker was through on goal, but made an air shot and the ball was scrambled away by Spurs defence.  Samrawit Bereket produced some good work on the wing in the 40th minute to put in an excellent cross, but again the opportunity went begging.

Three minutes before the break, the Spurs defence failed to clear the ball and in making a short pass allowed the Brentford striker to steal the ball and shoot past Tina, who had no chance to save to put the home side 1-0 up.

Gill Blackmore came on for Di Gardiner at the start of the second half and soon after restart Brentford pressed forward forcing Tina into a save that went out for a corner that led to the second goal. 

Spurs got back into the match 10 minutes into the half, when a great through ball from Kerry Daniells was picked up and calmly finished by Rosi Webb to narrow the margin to 2-1.

Then Spurs literally threw the game away.  Thinking that the referee had blown for offside, Tina threw the ball back out for a free kick, only for the referee to wave play on.  An alert Brentford striker nipped in and lobbed Tina to complete the scoring at 3-1.

Despite further Spurs pressure, they could not get back into the game and the game ended with a very disappointing result for the Tottenham team.

JACKIE FEARON

Hendon  2    Clapton Orient  2    
Dagenham & Redbridge 4    Carshalton Athletic  1

Although the home side had the bulk of the early play, they failed to make the most of it and rarely troubled Tina Hills in the Spurs goal, who only had one difficult save to make.  Jackie Fearon had to reorganise the side when they lost Dom Clarke in the 13th minute with an ankle injury.  Bringing on Meroulla Lazarou, Jenny Curtis dropped into the full back slot and Meroulla dropped in just a little behind Rosi Webb up front.

The nearest Barnet came to scoring was when a free-kick was given against Tina for carrying the ball outside the penalty area and the shot from the resulting dead-ball situation was blazed a foot wide of the post in the 21st minute.

This inspired Tottenham's best spell of the match, when Gemma Coots struck a fine 30 yard effort against the crossbar in the 27th minute.  The ball bounced down with the keeper beaten all ends up and Meroulla raced onto the rebound and smashed her shot goalwards, but it too found the woodwork, this time crashing back off the post.  Barnet somehow managed to smuggle the ball off for a corner, just avoiding scoring an own goal in the process.

However, it was a goal from Lazarou in the next attack that gave Spurs the lead, capitalising on a long ball to knock it over the Barnet keeper that gave Tottenham a lead with 32 minutes played, which they held until half time.   There was a brief scare with ten minutes left of the half, when Barnet netted from a free-kick, but the referee disallowed the strike for offside.

Eight minutes into the second half, Barnet equalised, converting a low cross at the far post and although they struggled against some good passing by the Spurs Ladies, they started to impose themselves on the game.  Jenny Curtis was the unlucky recipient of a yellow card for a foul after being barged off the ball and a couple of Barnet substitutions introduced some fresh legs for their side.

The home side got a second on seventy minutes to take the lead for the first time.  A cross skidded off Hills' punch and a Barnet player at the far post just about squeezed the ball home in off the post.  Even then Tottenham almost got straight back into the game, when Gemma unleashed a 25 yard shot that the keeper fumbled and just grabbed behind her before it crossed the goal-line.

Having survived that scare, the Bees pushed forward, hitting the bar with ten minutes left and although Tina had to make a couple of dashes from her line to frustrate strikers running through on goal, a late free-kick that went in off the post five minutes from the end to make it 3-1 at the end flattered Barnet.  Although Spurs’ interest in the WFA Cup this season was over, they proved that they can live with teams from a side placed second in a higher division.

Clapton Orient  3    Carshalton Athletic  1
Hendon  0   Long Lane  5  

There was early pressure from Dagenham in the first 10 minutes, with a couple of corners for the home side.  However, once Spurs settled, they got back well into the game with a couple of shots that tested the Dagenham keeper.

On 20 minutes Tina saved from a corner and with another D&R break, Kelly saved a certain goal with a last ditch tackle.

Spurs then moved on the Dagenham goal with 27 minutes on the clock, following great work between Jenny and Abidemi with Jenny Curtis putting a great cross into the Dagenham box. Goal mouth scramble ensued, but Spurs could not produce a goal from it.  Further pressure on the home goal followed from Tottenham, including a number of corners that the keeper tried to punch away but Spurs could not turn the pressure into a goal.  So, after a solid performance from Spurs, the half ended 0-0.

Into the second half, there was again some early Dagenham pressure as Spurs struggled to clear their lines. Sarah Green came on to replace Kerry Daniells 10 minutes into the half.

A hopeful punt up field by the Dagenham defence should have been easily dealt with by the Spurs defence, but instead an 'air kick' allowed the Dagenham forward to run onto the ball and finish emphatically to make it 1-0.

The error unsettled the Spurs side, and Dagenham scored another two goals within the next seven minutes to effectively finish the game.  Even though things had gone against them, Spurs gamely battled on and had a couple of shots that tested the keeper from Rosi Webb, but it was too late to salvage anything from the game.

Spurs will need to eradicate the self inflicted errors from their game if they are to get anything from the remaining games this season.

Long Lane  3    Clapton Orient  3    

Travel problems meant a last minute arrival for some, while during the game, the team was gradually decimated by injury.  However, the first goal on five minutes bore traces of offside, but the ref waved play on and the D&R forward buried the ball into the net.  Not the start the team would have hoped for and on thirteen minutes, a ball over the top lead to Dagenham's second.  The third goal resulted from the same long ball tactic, with Tina Hills getting a good hand on the first shot, but the ball fell kindly to a forward, who tapped home the third on sixteen minutes. 

It was only Tina's alertness that stopped more goals, as the visitors repeated the same move time and again, with only Di Gardiner's shot keeping the Redbridge goalie active at the other end.

Just after Kerry Daniells had driven a fierce shot over the top from a corner, the play moved to the other end, with the Spurs defenders appealing for a foul, but as at the start, play continued with a ball into the  middle, where the fourth goal went in.

After the break, the team reorganised and provided a sterner test for D&R.  Efforts from Di and Rosi Webb made the visiting keeper work a little harder in the second half, but one more breakaway goal in the 70th minute for Dagenham wrapped up a disappointing weekend for the Ladies.

An injury to Kerry Daniells brought manager Jackie Fearon into the action and it was she who was alert to Geena Gordon's left wing cross and fired narrowly wide at the far post.  With minutes remaining, Rosi Webb slammed a shot goalwards and was unlucky to see it slice off a defender's boot and go just over the bar.

Clapton Orient  0    C.E.F.I.  1
London Womens  5    Brentford  0
Carshalton Athletic  1    Long Lane  6

Jackie Fearon

Hendon  0    London Womens  1