Women's Report | Frustrating draw in Bournemouth

Woking took away a point on their first road trip in five weeks, as missed chances left a misfortunate taste in the mouth. Helen Ogle got on the scoresheet yet again, to take her tally to eight goals in eight games.

The first effort of the game fell to Woking inside ten minutes when Sian Hardaker took aim from outside the box, but her effort went wide.

Bournemouth Sports hadn’t really created any major threats on goal, only a handful of corners in the early stages, but they took the lead a quarter of an hour into the game when a ball over the top of the defence, found their striker who dinked the ball over Amy Jenkins in goal, to put the hosts in front.

Sophie Burgess was next up to test the ‘keeper, as she took a shot from afar, but it was saved with ease.

The hosts nearly doubled their lead when they worked well to create space down the right-hand side, but their chance went just over the bar.

But just shortly before the half-hour mark, the Cards were on level terms after a fantastic sliding challenge from Trudy Bryan-Kerr broke up the play and allowed Charlotte Keenan to find Helen who fired into the bottom left-hand corner! She has now scored in each of her last four games.

With the use of roll-on roll-off substitutions, Anthony Rosenberg-Murray made use of this rule straight after the goal and replaced Sian and Trudy for Alicia Christie and Gracie Price. Unfortunately, Alicia only lasted four minutes before being taken off due to an injury sustained to her foot and was replaced by Efrosyni Theocharous.

Sheena Nichol, who was reinstated into the starting line-up this week, took on her well-known long shots over the course of the 90 minutes, with her first coming from a low drive outside the box but the goalkeeper managed to get to the ball and catch it firmly.

She was at it again a little less than five minutes later, once again taking aim and this time with a brilliant spin in the build-up to escape her player, but once again the ‘keeper made the save.

Just before half time, Bianca Underhill found Helen with a great corner, but our number 7 headed just wide of the post.

HT: Bournemouth Sports 1-1 Woking

During the break, Sophie made way for Ella Smith, in the only change made by the management team at that stage.

Young 16-year-old Gracie created Woking’s first chance of the second 45 minutes when she played a beautiful ball into the box, but unfortunately, no one could get to it in time.

Laura Mitchell nearly stole the headlines with an audacious effort from just inside the Bournemouth half, however, the ball was captured with no real stress to the ‘keeper.

In the space of three minutes, Bournemouth had two separate counter-attacking opportunities to put themselves back ahead in the game, firstly when they broke fast but blazed the ball over the crossbar, then secondly when they somehow managed to miss the target from close range after being one versus one with Amy.

In the 72nd minute, Sian returned to the pitch, replacing Gracie in midfield. This substitution didn’t slow Bournemouth down though as their spell on top was met with another close attempt, this time Amy did well to claim the ball and stop the threat after the hosts had time on the right to fire the ball into the box. After this, Trudy came back on to replace Charlotte.

The last ten minutes were where it could have gone either way, with tired legs on both sides being the deciding factor this time. Woking was desperately unlucky to see a well-worked routine from Efro and Helen end with the former rattling the bar, after their one-two had got them into a promising position. Next was Bournemouth’s chance to snatch all three points as their number 13’s first of three late chances saw her shot go just inches past the post.

She was in once again moments later but this time put too much power on the ball and watched her shot go just marginally over the crossbar after working it well down the left-hand side.

The closest and most agonising chance came when Trudy stopped the goalkeeper from kicking the ball long with her high press, but the result saw the ball roll across the goal line in slow motion before being cleared by a Bournemouth defender. It really doesn’t come closer than that.

Sheena’s final effort came in the 90th minute when she stung the palms of the ‘keeper with yet another effort from outside the 18-yard box. The resulting corner though saw Bournemouth nearly steal it at the death after their number 13 picked the ball up on the halfway line and she saw Amy off her line but rather than sprinting towards goal, she took aim from miles out and watched her shot get further away from goal, to leave her team in disappointment.

Sophie came back onto the pitch for the final few seconds, replacing Bianca, in what was the last notable action before the referee called time on the game.

Full Time: Bournemouth Sports 1-1 Woking

Anthony said in his post-match interview that the game was a bit like a “boxing match” and that the team had been “used to astroturf” for the past five weeks so it did take time for the players to get used to the grass and that they’ll need to adapt to it over the next couple of weeks. That point keeps Woking in fifth position in the league and they’ll now turn their attention to next week’s game against Welling United Women in the Capital Cup Second Round.



Woking Starting XI: Jenkins, Underhill (90+4), Cotter ©, Mitchell, Burgess (46) (90+4), Hardaker (26) (72), Bryan-Kerr (26) (76), Nichol, Hobday, Keenan (76), Ogle

Subs: Christie (26) (30), Price (26) (72), Theocharous (30), Smith (46)

Attendance: 29

Player of the Match: Gaby Hobday