Birmingham 1sts Narrowly Edged Out by Durham.
Birmingham women’s 1st football XI lost to league leaders Durham by one goal to nil, the narrowest of margins, succumbing the Lions to their third defeat in four games. It could be said that Durham, the league leaders with four wins in five games, thoroughly deserved their victory and it could have been more.
It was a scrappy start to the game, on a cold afternoon with the sun setting, but Durham managed to conjure up the first chance on goal. Durham’s Steph Jacobson took it passed two lunging Birmingham challenges, gave it to the striker, Lucy Gildein, who calmly slotted it into the bottom right hand corner with her right foot. Birmingham had an up-hill task from the start with the first goal of the game coming in the first five minutes.
The goal, however, did not kick the Lions into gear. Shortly after conceding, Birmingham gave away a procession of corners. From the first, Durham’s centre back, Susan Marshall, had a free header which sailed over the bar. The next resulted in another free header, this time it was blocked by a Birmingham defender.
Another attack saw the Durham right back, Sarah Talcott, advancing forward after some nice intricate passing on the left hand side, however her shout was turned round the post by Birmingham ‘keeper Amy Edwards.
Birmingham were guilty of being very careless in possession, especially in their defensive third. One prominent example of this was when a Birmingham defender lost the ball, resulting in a cross to Gildein, who tried to feed the ball into Jacobson, which was then quelled by the Lions defence.
They struggled to really get into the game until the latter stages of the first half when the game became more open. A few half chances presented themselves to the Lions, a header from Eve McGill flew over the top and a free-kick on the edge of the box from Laura Cooper also couldn’t find the target.
The second half started similarly to the first, with Durham’s Kim Lopez having two identical chances, both of which were comfortably saved by Edwards. Down the other end, a long ball from the Birmingham defence set Alex Francis free, but her lobbed effort was easily dealt with by the Durham ‘keeper Lisa Lubke.
It was a much more competitive and even second half and Birmingham enjoyed long spells of possession but couldn’t quite find the clear cut opportunities that they needed. You could see that the nerves were getting to Durham as Luke misplaced a pass, giving the ball to an Birmingham attacker, who played into Fresher Alison Hall, blazing over the bar.
The next chance came a couple of minutes later as Mcgill turned past a Durham defender, crossing to Hall, who’s shot was blocked, and the follow up effort flew harmlessly wide of the goal. The last chance came with the last kick off the game. Birmingham had a free kick on the right edge of the box. The ball was played short to Laura Cooper, who scuffed her shot and the Durham defense were able to quell the threat.
Throughout the game, I never really felt that the Lions created enough clear-cut opportunities to convincingly break through the Durham defence. Durham looked confident on the ball and you could see why they are the reigning champions, with a comfortable lead five games through this season. However, Birmingham did exceptionally well to get over the early goal and losing 1-0 to this Durham side, full of American Post-graduates, is nothing to be ashamed of. The Lions now look forward to welcoming Nottingham Trent to Metchley next week in the BUCs Women’s football Premier North season.
