The changes went in two by two in Dorset, with Katie Cooper and Georgia Tibble in from the beginning, while new signings Leah Hume and Berine Vivas Alonso started on the bench. Injury accounted for Captain Dan Rowe and Chloe Winchester, as Worthing lined up against a team that had lost just once in all competitions and edged August’s league encounter at the same venue two-one.
In a match that had been moved to the recently constructed 3G at the fast-changing ground of Ringwood Town – much to the relief of the Kitman – it was the hosts who got the action underway early on. A flag-kick wasn’t properly cleared and Beach Soccer International, Molly Barron-Clark made the visitors pay via a twenty-yard daisy cutter, drilled into the bottom corner.
That occurred in the opening minute and less than sixty seconds later, Lauren Dolbear had to be alert to divert Erin Bloomfield’s shot with her right boot and stop the deficit from doubling.
‘Loz’ was at it again as the Alamo continued, coming out to the edge of her area to prevent Jenna Markham making the most of a long ball over the top. Although the striker got a second bite of the cherry, Katie Young blocked her angled follow-up.
The crossbar intervened when Barron-Clark threatened to bag her brace, then Izzy Franklin got in her way and Dolbear got down well to save near her front stick from Bloomfield, at the expense of a corner.
Unfortunately, the subsequent set-piece proved to be the guest’s undoing once more, Katie James left unmarked to head home a mere thirteen minutes in.
Last week’s hat-trick hero Sophie Humphrey did have the ball in the back of the net, only for the far side assistant to raise his flag for offside. Succeeded a short time later by a brilliant defensive block to keep out Dani Lane at a Tibble corner, as the travellers searched for a route back into the contest.
Midway through the half, Holly Talbut-Smith’s foul on goalscorer Markham, just outside the penalty box, led to Kenni Thompson striking the goal frame, with the upright the saviour on this occasion.
Bloomfield’s cross bounced off the top of the crossbar, via the fingertips of Dolbear but the Worthing ‘keeper was eventually beaten again, little more than half-an-hour into a contest that threatened to run away from an under-the-cosh Worthing.
Lucy Cooper intercepted a visitor’s throw-in and found Markham, who got the better of Franklin in a fortunate fifty-fifty to slot home her twelfth of an increasingly profitable season.
Though her surprise at being on side resulted in a wayward finish moments later.
Not that it really mattered in the grand scheme of things, thanks to Bloomfield blasting a rocket into the top corner from the eighteen yard line, after she was teed up by fellow scorer Barron-Clark.
A well-worked move between Bloomfield and Cooper carved open the Rebels five minutes before the break, only for Talbut-Smith to ensure the Cherries didn’t go nap.
Soon followed by further fine approach play that saw Kelci Bowers a whisker away from picking out the top corner.
Thompson and Barron-Clark made way for Ellie Strippel and Chloe Gilroy during the interval, as the Stripes refused to rest on the laurels, despite enjoying a healthy advantage.
They might have increased it by another, with Strippel causing Dolbear to readjust her body at the last minute to deny the substitute a fifth. Prior to performing more heroics when superbly tipping over James’ attempt in practically the same breath.
However, the blue-clad Reds appeared to have rediscovered their mojo, fast approaching the hour mark. Bowers brought down Tierney Scott, fractionally inside the byline, with the in-form forward eager to take the spot-kick she had won. That decision briefly looked like it might have been the wrong one but ‘T’ reacted quickest to bury the rebound, after netminder Erin Foley had initially saved.
Normal service resumed though and Dolbear turned into Superwoman; flying through the air to parry Strippel’s latest shot, once the attacking midfielder had broken into the area off the right wing.
That opportunity engineered shortly after Humphrey battled her way through a sea of bodies, only to be denied at the last.
Any hopes of a comeback were surely dashed courtesy of a sixty-seventh minute screamer by Cooper but the Sussex side didn’t let their heads drop, in spite of facing seemingly overwhelming odds.
In fact, Tibble’s persistence allowed Lane to weave in and out of traffic and come agonisingly close to pulling another one back.
Roles then reversed when Foley dropped down to pounce on the former’s goalbound strike.
Yet more Dolbear effulgence made it certain that Bournemouth wouldn’t be adding to their tally; Gilroy especially suffering frustration at the hands of ‘Loz.’ The wind also joined in to aid the recently introduced Alisha Buckingham’s long-range free-kick, to keep the overworked custodian on her toes and the hosts simply settled for a flag-kick, off the back of a tip over the top, rather than the onion bag sucking in a sixth.
It would be left to fellow sub Hume to have the final say of the afternoon however, as the sun finally broke through the clouds. Humphrey surged to the byline, where she spotted the run of her new teammate who clinically converted from close range.
So, Bournemouth reach the quarter-finals of the National League Plate but an encouraging second forty-five against the Champions-elect offers plenty of hope for next Sunday’s return to the bread and butter of the league.
