In a sideways tribute to Noah and his Ark, the changes went in two by two for the Rebels in their penultimate away game of the season. New signing Mia South went straight into the starting line-up for her debut, while Dani Lane was fit again to regain her place in the side. Izzy Franklin and Lily Dalton made way to join recent recruit Grace Bates and goalkeeper Libby Kingshott on the sub’s bench.
Talking of shotstoppers, it needed the reflexes of Lauren Dolbear to prevent the hosts from taking a shock early lead.
Meg Curran conceded possession and the ball soon found its way over to the inside-right channel, where her opposite number played it back to Holly Sellwood to slip in Mollie Dyer, only for ‘Loz’ to combine with her own crossbar to keep it level-pegging, after just nine minutes.
The visitors quickly retaliated via Dan Rowe’s corner being met by the returning Lane who headed off target.
However, within sixty seconds, they went one better. A free-kick on the left saw Katie Young find Tierney Scott and Worthing’s leading scorer hit a beauty from the corner of the eighteen yard box and in off the underside of the crossbar, to open the visitor’s account.
Dolbear had to get down to field a low drive by Molly Lygo but the striker’s effort lacked the power to cause any real danger.
Peversley, a lull then took over for a spell with both teams struggling to create chances on a difficult surface.
A full half-an-hour had elapsed by the time either goal was threatened again and Abingdon were the ones who came closest to wiping out a one-nil deficit.
Some serious pressure culminated in Mollie Dyer’s delivery causing problems and Erin Hartigan disregarding her own personal safety to get on the end of it. Not quite able to keep her shot down, she also used the upright as an unintended buffer though, thankfully, was able to continue after treatment.
Lane might have equalised, only for her half-volley to flash wide when she connected with Eleanor Keegan’s centre, from the edge of the penalty area.
Young went long to pick out the run of Scott, who surged forward and exchanged a neat one-two with Becs Bell, only for an unfortunate bobble to cause ‘T’ to miskick at the vital moment.
Half-time was almost upon us when Dolbear’s brilliance came to the fore once more; denying Hartigan’s powerfully-struck attempt following Lygo’s flag-kick, succeeded by Libby not being such a happy Gilmore as she fired over from the subsequent second corner.
In an identical opening to the first forty-five, United got the ball rolling in the early exchanges after the break.
More excellent work by Dolbear led to her diverting Dyer’s right wing cross to prevent a lurking Hartigan from profiting.
Taking the game back to their opponents, Bell and Keegan both suffered the frustration of seeing shots blocked before a stunning stop by Caitlin Crierie kept out Sophie Humphrey at the expense of a flag-kick. Bell the initial creator.
Heading into the last ten minutes, Captain Dan’s (Rowe) corner caused problems, requiring Kara Howes to hook off the line.
Home Skipper Nell Boxall glanced narrowly the wrong side of the post but the real drama hadn’t happened yet.
Despite Holly Talbut-Smith appearing to be forcefully pushed out of the way, presumably the fact that she didn’t suffer concussion deemed Dyer’s diving header perfectly legal, with two minutes to go. To rub salt in the wounds, Lane’s legitimate protests earned her ten in the sin bin.
It then took two to tango, thanks to both the referee and his near-side assistant falling to identify the culprit of a stamp on Rowe’s now stud-marked leg.
Although retribution nearly came the way of Young, as she couldn’t quite redirect her Captain’s deep free-kick to redress the balance.
Three minutes past the allotted ninety, substitute Poppy Wannell’s cross was tapped in on the rebound by Lygo to cause scenes of pandemonium amongst the majority of The Northcourt.
Not that the excitement ended there, courtesy of Humphrey locating Scott in the box and the fortunately recovered Talbut-Smith lashing a twenty yarder too high, soon followed by ‘Soph’ herself doing likewise from a deadball situation and Scott incurring the wrath of the man in the middle to, briefly, join Lane in the sin bin.
Worthing did end the afternoon with a full complement of players on the pitch but Abingdon saw out the remainder of the quarter-of-an-hour of additional time to take three much-needed points in their battle to beat the drop.
