Lauren Dolbear returning in goal for her first appearance of the season stood out on the team sheet, while Sammy Quayle’s absence was covered by Becs Bell being back, after missing the victory at Bournemouth Sports last time out. Izzy Franklin dropped down to the bench, where she was joined by goalkeeper Libby Kingshott, Katie Cooper, Amelia Davies and Elle Keegan; Manager Jesus Cordon enjoying the rare luxury of a full matchday sixteen for only the second time this season.
The match took some time to really get going, despite Sophie Humphrey slipping in Bell after a mere five minutes, forcing Robins’ netminder Hannah Cox to come out sharply to deny the hosts a great start.
Indeed it took another twenty for either side to threaten either goal, courtesy of Katie Sherwood picking out the head of Tori St Clare. Dolbear doing what she does best by turning the chance aside for a corner.
Both teams continued to cancel each other out, summed up by top scorer Annie Colston cutting inside to fire meekly at an untroubled Dolbear.
However, just when it looked like we would reach the half-time break with nothing separating the two competing clubs, a rare error by the otherwise unflappable Dolbear changed the complexion of the opening forty-five minutes. ‘Loz’ came out to the edge of her eighteen yard box to intercept a through ball, only for her momentum to cause her to effectively spill it, to avoid handling it outside but subsequently presented an easy opportunity that Holly Beck-Esson gratefully passed into an unguarded net.
Then, to compound the host’s misery, right on the stroke of half-time, Colston charged down Chloe Winchester’s attempted clearance and fired high into the onion bag from the eighteen yard line – again – to leave Worthing with at least a hill to climb.
Although the Rebels did their level best to reduce that hill to more of a mound, via Tierney Scott seeing an effort blocked by the outstretched leg of Sahara Osbourne-Ricketts, then Cox parrying Captain Dan Rowe’s follow-up header for a second successive flag-kick.
Early into the second period, St Clare was on the prowl once more; pouncing on Emily Linscer’s hesitation and powering towards the target, before hitting a powerful attempt at Dolbear that the custodian held safely onto.
Reds retaliated with a fine breakaway resulting in Humphrey driving a low delivery into the danger zone, Scott recycling it and laying back to Rowe to drill over the crossbar under pressure, a smudging outside it.
Two minutes later, fast approaching the hour mark, the mound returned to being a hill thanks to further rearguard sloppiness gifting a brace to Skipper Colston, who made it seven goals in as many games with a simple, close range finish.
Though the visitor’s weren’t immune from a bout of “after you” themselves; Humphrey taking advantage to burst forward from midfield but, despite having Bell for company ‘Soph’ elected to shoot and saw a blocked shot as the outcome instead.
Some people thought it was all over, although nobody was running onto the pitch, when, following a delay/discussion between the referee and his far side assistant, the man in the middle pointed, rather harshly, to the spot. Colston stepped up looking to complete her hat-trick but Dolbear redeemed herself by producing a stunning, low, one-handed save; diving to her left to turn the spot-kick around the post and leave the Worthing Kitman with a full set of match balls.
Finally, growing into the game, full debutant Jess Richardson outpaced Osbourne-Ricketts on the right but the unfortunate Humphrey was narrowly off target when the ball made it’s way into the box.
Moments after that, substitute Cooper, on the pitch for less than a minute, spotted an opening that so nearly got her side back into the match. A long-range beauty cannoning back off the bar.
Then, play switched rapidly up the other end where an excellent first-time volley had St Clare despatching Helena Diaz-Butcher’s cross, only for an offside flag to rule it out.
More than three-quarters of the way through a tantalising affair, Colston did wonderfully well to keep the ball in; releasing Beck-Esson who eventually suffered frustration not once but twice in her attempt to put the result beyond all reasonable doubt.
Sterling work by Cooper saw tremendous tenacity turn a seemingly lost cause into a corner, when she harried Billie Haines into conceding said set-piece, which the recently-introduced Franklin culled onto the dome of Dani Lane but Cox clutched onto beneath her own crossbar.
Gipsy Viveash got the better of another inductee off the bench in Davies and drifted over a deep delivery that St Clare got to and struck the outside of the far upright with, as the pace of the afternoon continued unabated.
Sadly, all the homesters’ hard work was undone in the most spectacular fashion three minutes from time. Katelyn Wort made her mark, six minutes after swapping the sanctity of the dugout for that of the 3G pitch, by striking an absolute pearler to put the icing very much on a now sizeable cake.
There was still enough left on the clock though for Dolbear to come to her team’s rescue again, as she thwarted the newly-introduced Elise Haines, once the earlier sin binned Winchester had lost possession to allow Poppy Dearlove to maintain the theme of subs having an immediate impact.
Stoppages then gave us one last moment of drama.
Viveash’s attempts at hiding her handling of Rowe’s header on the line proved futile. Although Lane summed up the host’s day by blasting her penalty over the top, to leave the ten player guests to see out the final few moments of an ultimately handsome win.
