Oxford United Women earned a big 1-0 win away from home at Ipswich Town on Sunday morning.
The Yellow’s fourth win on the trot in the League means that the U’s do the double over the Tractor Girls and move level with them on points.
It was a game played in tough conditions, with an 11AM pitch inspection deeming the surface playable, but the wind and rain didn’t let up.
The first half passed without many clear chances, Lacy Liggett had the best effort that landed on the top of the net with five minutes to play, but it was a cagey affair at the AGL Arena.
At the half way mark, Vitaliia Budaieva replaced Jaime Gotch, and the game stepped up in intensity.
First, Liggett was sent off ten minutes after the restart for a second bookable offence, leaving the U’s with ten women for the final half an hour or so.
Rather than sit behind the ball, United took the game to Ipswich and found the winner in the 70th minute.
Shelly Provan pressed the Ipswich back line who gave the ball to Zoe Barratt. The U’s striker, against her old side, shot low and Poppy Soper got a toe to it but substitute Budaieva tapped home the rebound under pressure to score her first goal for the club and set up a tense final twenty.
The U’s defended excellently and prevented Ipswich from creating much, a lofted effort bouncing off the crossbar the biggest threat to Paris Sercombe’s goal.
In the final minutes, Ipswich were also reduced to ten as Barratt was rushing through on goal and was brought down by Evie Williams.
An excellent result on the road, earned by a hard fought and resilient performance. The U’s now look to make it five wins in a row in the Southern Premier Division as they travel to Chatham Town next weekend.
LINEUP: Sercombe, Provan, Gotch (Budaieva, 45), Jenkins, Oliver, Wiseman, Legg, Burridge, King, Barratt, Liggett
Report by Billy Lawrence, Photos by RossMediaUK