Ladies Battle to an Important Win

Knowle Ladies produced a battling performance to beat Burton Albion 2-0 at home last weekend, picking up a valuable three points towards their goal on staying in the Premier Division in this their first season in this league.

A wet and windy Robins Nest observed the silence for armistice day, then watched the home side start with a bang. Knowle were on the front foot immediately, and produced a number of good moves in the opening stages. They went ahead just under ten minutes in; Jess Barlow and Jess Holland combined well to feed the overlapping Morgan Betteridge on the right hand side. Her cross was inch perfect and Nadia Bacciochi merrily smashed it home from ten yards out to give her side the lead. Burton stuck to their game plan and played several long balls down Knowle’s left side, but Naomi Henry was alert to the danger and mopped up well, ably assisted by wing back Katie Adams when required.  Jess Holland was alert on the back post to clear the danger on the one occasion a cross did come in.

Knowle’s next chance fell to Adams when she connected with a Betteridge corner but her attempt flew over the bar. Soon after Demi Rolph wriggled free in the box but could not get enough power behind her shot to trouble Burton’s keeper. A couple of late challenges in the Knowle penalty area saw play stopped for some time; firstly keeper Jess Jenkinson was clattered after bravely clearing and the Kate Fleming suffered a clash of heads when she headed a corner clear. Jenkinson was in the action again when she made an excellent save to deny the forward, before distributing the ball quickly. Knowle roared into the counter attack, Rolph slipped in Bacciochi and this time she produced a thunderbolt shot from the right side that beat the keeper all ends up.

The rest of the half became somewhat disjointed, with tackles flying in and regular stoppages disrupting any chance of the game flowing. Knowle could perhaps have extended their lead late on when Bacciochi went clear again, but the Burton defender was able to get back in the nick of time to block her shot. Both sides picked up a booking in the latter stages of the half, but Knowle were well worth their 2-0 lead when the whistle blew. Burton’s best chance had come late on with a well worked recycled corner; Jenkinson did extremely well to gather the high ball just under the crossbar at her near post.

The early stages of the second half followed the same pattern as that messy end to the first forty-five. Both sides struggled to keep possession, and the game was a physical battle. Burton then changed shape which gave them more possession and they really began to threaten the Knowle goal. Jenkinson produced another superb save at her near post, and Yvette Dolphin stuck out a foot to deflect a shot that was no doubt about to nestle in the bottom corner.  

Knowle gambled by bring on all five subs and the fresh legs no doubt helped, with all five players working hard to stem the Burton tide. Knowle’s best chances of the second half both fell to Rolph; her shot from distance after picking up a half clearance nearly caught the back pedalling keeper off guard, and the same custodian made a very good low save to stop a snapshot. Rolph was in the thick of it at the other end too, heading a corner off the goal-line to preserve her side’s clean sheet.

Burton piled forward in the last fifteen minutes and the Robins had their backline to thank for maintaining their lead. Maz Byrne made an incredible block on the goal-line and followed it up with a thundering tackle, then Sam Smith blocked two shots in a row. Burton came closest from another corner, with the forward’s attempt bouncing back off the bar before Smith cleared. It felt like a goal would come, but Knowle had other ideas and stood firm. Late on it was Henry’s turn to save her team, launching herself into the way of the forceful shot and then reacting well to block the rebound too. 

An incisive first half performance and a fighting second half one gave Knowle their 2-0 win then, with all sixteen members of the matchday squad making huge contributions. In a quirk of the fixture list, they will play Burton Albion again next week, away at the Pirelli Stadium  with a 3pm kick off.

Knowle: Jenkinson, Holland, Betteridge (Smith, 65), Byrne, Henry, Adams (Phelps, 65), Dolphin, Fleming (Joynson, 65), Barlow (Clarke, 65), Rolph, Bacciochi (McDonald, 65).