Midweek unavailability due to work commitments meant a much-changed squad to the one which had faced leaders Swindon Town on Sunday. Jess Richardson was missing, while Holly Talbut-Smith and Becs Bell got their evenings underway on the subs’ bench, so Katie Cooper, Izzy Franklin and Elle Keegan were all promoted to the starting line-up. Goalkeeper Libby Kingshott completed a trio of replacements ready to make an impact, with Amelia Davies also absent.
Unlike the contest with the Robins three days ago, this match maintained an end-to-end mantra throughout. A mere seven minutes were on the clock when Sophie Humphrey got the action underway early, as she picked up the baton in midfield and drove forward before finding Dani Lane who supplied Scott to open the scoring.
Although netminder Lauren Dolbear needed to have her wits about her less than two minutes later, courtesy of a powerful angled attempt requiring a point-blank range tip over to ensure recent Rebel Shannon Albuery was denied an equaliser against her former employers.
Reds went back on the attack as the rain intermittently lashed down and Scott, one of many thorns in the visitor’s side, came close to doubling both her and her team’s advantage. A combination of Sara Luce in the guest’s goal, who did well to deal with an awkward bounce in front of her and the front stick linked up to frustrate the lively winger,before Britt Jeal’s sliding intervention stopped Dan Rowe in her tracks on the rebound.
Moneyfields enjoyed decent spells of possession but without really troubling Dolbear in the first-half. Particularly when the omnipotent threat of Beth Burgess failed to make the most of the space afforded to her, resulting in an early shot being safely gathered by the Red’s custodian.
Good work from twinkle toes Chloe Winchester then resulted in Humphrey almost catching the ‘keeper out, forcing a fine save out of a diving Luce.
Lane became the latest to join forces with the luckless Humphrey, as ‘Soph’ endured further goalmouth drought not long after that. Luce answering the call once more.
A period of penalty box pinball only ended via the wayward conclusion of a falling Jeal, who couldn’t keep her shot down, as Moneys continued their search for a leveller.
That search nearly ended just before the break thanks to the aforementioned Jeal, again, seeing her latest effort pounced upon by a relieved Dolbear. Burgess enjoying the freedom of the Sussex Transport Community Stadium to engineer the opening.
Just when it appeared that Worthing would take a narrow one-goal lead into the interval, former friend turned on-pitch enemy Albuery went within a whisker of an equaliser. Burgess’s cross from the right headed goalwards by the number nine, only for the well-placed Franklin to clear off the line and make sure the host’s half-time oranges tasted that little bit sweeter.
Not that the ascendency lasted much longer; the same deadly duo combining to greater effect in the first sixty seconds of the following forty-five, leading to Albuery making no mistake this time and enhancing her fan’s favourite tag by respectfully refusing to celebrate her strike.
Possibly perturbed by the turn of events, it only took a further four minutes for the home side to regain the initiative. Half-time change Bekah Tonks fouled Humphrey in the area, with Cooper duly obliging from twelve yards, sending Luce the wrong way.
Moments later, it got even better, owing to the tenacity of ‘T.’ Despite initially looking to have lost the advantage, Scott persisted and won the ball back off protagonist Sophie Phelps then powered forward before unleashing a twenty yard screamer into the top corner off her ‘weaker’ left foot.
Not that Worthing were having it all their own way, as ably demonstrated by Burgess finding Kim Fuller to pick out goalscorer Albuery, only for former teammate Dolbear to show great reactions by parrying behind for a corner.
Right on the hour mark, the Portsmouth-based travellers tested the strength of the apparatus, through the medium of role reversal. Burgess this time shooting herself but simply procuring a goal-kick for the opposition, rather than a goal for the team in yellow.
Two might have become three when Burgess resumed her role of Tormentor-in-Chief, sending a delivery into the danger zone that was recycled by Fuller but dealt with admirably by the Rebels’ backline.
Switching play immediately up the other end, Winchester dispossessed Phelps and made her way rapidly towards the target. Lane was subsequently located inside the eighteen yard box, where she was kept out by Luce only for Jenny-on-the-spot Scott to, typically, be in the right place at just the right time to claim the matchball.
However, Money’s were soon back in the game when Albuery was brought down from behind by Emily Linscer for the second penalty of the evening and duly dispatched it herself.
An audible sigh of relief reverberated around the ground with fifteen minutes to go, courtesy of Fuller’s low, left wing centre somehow avoiding everybody in and around the six yard area, before emerging the other side.
The action-packed affair showed no signs of slowing down and Luce had to be on her toes to make sure neither Humphrey nor substitute Bell profited from a kind break in the box for the former.
Within seconds though, visiting Captain Gemma Simmonds thought that the other upright might have been feeling left out, so she promptly struck it via a venomous shot from distance.
While that might not have been the aim, so to speak, replacement Maisie Aldridge managed to get her effort on target, though Dolbear was able to get comfortably behind it and avoid any drama.
Having gone over the allotted ninety minutes during that specific episode, Aldridge warned “those of a nervous disposition to look away now” by delivering a cross frighteningly close to goal.
Although her next contribution saw her name go in the referee’s notebook for clattering into Humphrey who, naturally, recovered quickly in spite of a slightly bloody outcome.
The final say of an increasingly sodden night resulted in ‘Winch’ scoop-hooking narrowly the wrong side of the post; the final score moving us up to exactly mid-way in the South West table.
