Oxford United Women narrowly lost a hard-fought battle against Women's National League leaders, Coventry United LFC, at home at Court Place Farm on Tuesday night.

A blistering first half performance saw a couple of close attempts at both ends and a great save from Lucy Thomas to nudge a powerful shot over the crossbar. As the teams went in for half time, it was clear that the Yellows had not let the fact that their opposition had yet to lose a game this season get into their heads and that Coventry United  would need to find something else to break the deadlock.

Both sides came out fighting again as the second half began and the game continued at an incredible pace with multiple attempts at both ends. Approaching 20 minutes into the second half, a goal mouth scramble ended in Coventry’s favour and the ball found the back of the net, making the score 1-0 to Coventry United.

Play continued apace with further chances, including a free kick for Oxford which was sent wide. Another shot on goal from Coventry at close range was saved by Thomas but was sent back goalwards before she had chance to recover and found the back of the net for Coventry for the second time taking the score to 2-0 for the visitors.

The match never really slowed and in the 89th minute, a lovely strike from Emily Allen from a great solo run finally found the back of the net for Oxford. It was a truly deserved goal but unfortunately came too late for the Yellows to find another and the game finished 2-1 to the visitors.

Manager Liam Gilbert, was disappointed that the final score line didn’t reflect the efforts of his team:

“All credit to Coventry they are a well organised, experienced team who took their chances on the night. It’s always a tough pill to swallow losing especially by one goal. They are an unbeaten team and my young squad went toe to toe with them and gave everything they had for the team. There are plenty of positives we will take away from this game. We will dust ourselves down and get back to work on the training ground ahead of a big league cup game against Crawley Wasps.”

OUWFC return to action on Sunday 14 October, hosting Crawley Wasps LFC in the second round of the Women’s National League Cup and we’ll be back in league action on 21 October with a visit to North Leigh.

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