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Spurs took on Division Three Central side
Katabella in a friendly at Fred Knights and were disappointed to only
record a draw, having dominated the whole match.
From the very early stages, Spurs opened up
the visitors on the flanks, but failed to create any clear openings from
this possession. After 13 minutes, a neat piece of play saw Lizzie De
Asha link with Katie Taylor, who laid the ball back for Mel Berry to lob
goalwards, but the ball went over the bar. Then just a minute later,
Sam Garner's right wing run saw her pull the ball back for Lizzie to
strike a first time shot just the wrong side of the post. Spurs
maintained the pressure with Lillie Chapman and Mel comfortably
controlling the midfield and the latter fired in a dipping shot that was
narrowly too high. This came after Andrea Walkes had been put in down
the right side of the penalty area and lifted her shot over the keeper
as she came out, but the linesman pulled play back for an offside
decision. Andrea's strength had given the opponents' defence problems
throughout the first half.
On 24 minutes, Katie played a neat ball
inside the full back for Andrea, whose shot was blocked just as she
looked on for a goal and then Sam cut in from the right wing to hit a
shot that found the side-netting. With the vast majority of the play in
the Katabella half, the first period ended with their keeper just
getting to the ball before Katie to clear the danger.
The second half saw Katabella try to be a
bit more adventurous and this meant Spurs had to a little defending to
do, but Kerry Daniells, Jenny Curtis, Athena Yennaris and Lizzie held
firm, along with Lauren Wedderburn and Dom Clarke (who suffered a nasty
clash of heads with an opponent) on the flanks. Beth Richards proved
elusive for the Katabella defence on the right wing and she played the
ball into Faye Callaway, who turned her marker and forced a save from
the keeper. The play switched to the other end with a long ball from
the visitors defence and Spurs keeper Handan Djoshkoun raced out to
force a hurried shot that went well wide of the goal. However, 12
minutes into the half, another long ball went over the Spurs defence and
the Katabella striker hit a shot that beat Handan to put them ahead,
much against the run of play.
Spurs were indebted to Handan a couple of
minutes later, when a break of four Katabella players saw the ball
played back for a shot that was saved at point blank range. Spurs were
gaining superiority in midfield again and a through pass set Faye away
and her rising shot was well held by the Katabella keeper. Becks
Andrews was causing problems on the left wing, despite getting struck in
the face by the ball and Faye tested the keeper again midway through the
second half. Then Beth went on a forty yard run down the right wing,
outpacing her marker and finished it with a fine shot that the goalie
did well to tip around the post. Lillie looked as though she would be
in on goal until she was stopped by a decision by the Katabella
linesman, who had flagged her offside form a throw-in.
With just five minutes remaining, a ball
through the heart of the Katabella defence opened them up and Faye ran
on to lift the ball over the advancing keeper to notch the well-deserved
equaliser for Tottenham. This spurred the ladies on and the
hard-working Hannah Charman was robbed of the ball just when she was
about to shoot inside the area and Beth was through and hit the
side-netting with her late effort.
It was a useful work-out for the
Reserves, who were not at full-strength and have more important games to
come.
JUNE CLARKE |
