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ALTRINCHAM FC LADIES: Lizzie, Tallulah, Caroline, Cyprus(Kathryn), Sam B, Gail, Cloe A, Heather, Sue, Brogan and Tracey. Subs: Sarah, Hayley, Becci, Beth and Chloe.

REPORT

Report courtesy of Phil Taylor.

The Ladies returned to action this afternoon, making the short trip to Warrington to play one of the two teams above us in the table and the only team yet to inflict a defeat.

The Warrington pitch passed an inspection early on Sunday morning so we set off into the wind and rain up the M62.

A variety of reasons meant that we were missing Louise, Rachel, Hannah and Sam Jones but new signing Sue made her much anticipated debut in central midfield.

The Ladies lined up once again in a 4-1-4-1 formation: Lizzie, as usual in Goal, a back four of Tallulah, Caroline, Cyprus(Kathryn) and Sam B, Gail in her normal position sweeping in front. The midfield comprised Cloe A, Heather, Sue and Brogan with Tracey ploughing a lonely furrow up front..

Subs were, Sarah, Hayley, Becci, Beth and Chloe.

The Ladies warmed up on a cold and blustery January day. Unfortunately, whilst being warmed up in the goalmouth, Lizzie suffered a cut to her knee. Investigation of the area identified that there were a number of shards of brick and other building materials, half buried.

Whilst the two managers and the referee went to investigate the condition of an adjoining pitch, the offending articles were removed and the referee passed the pitch as playable.

Warrington kicked off and immediately put us on the back foot playing good swift attacking football.

Barely a minute had passed when the referee awarded a tight offside against a Warrington player, who was through on goal. This prompted an aggrieved reaction which necessitated a talking to.

We seemed to be struggling to get started, whether it was the long Christmas break with no training or too many mince pies, our marking was poor and the ball was being given away to cheaply or simply kicked up field rather than passing to a red shirt as is the norm.

Sue Roberts, our new signing from Blacon Ladies, was making her debut and was working hard in the midfield but Warrington were clearly the better side and fashioned another chance on seven minutes which went narrowly wide.

Uncertain defending led to a corner to Warrington on eleven minutes, which was easily finished due to poor marking. Warrington had taken a well deserved lead.

The Ladies did start to show some improvement, forcing an easy save from the Warrington custodian which resulted in a corner.

At the 23 minute mark it became apparent that Lizzie’s knee was once again bleeding. At the next stoppage in play permission was asked to go onto the field to clean and re-dress it. As this was being started, the referee came to enquire whether this was a recurrence of the pre-match injury or a new one. When Lizzie advised him that it was indeed a new one, having looked at the goalmouth where more items had become apparent, he took the decision to abandon the match in the interests of player safety.

This was a very unsatisfactory end to the game. The Ladies had been below their best and must hope to be more effective next week, when they take on Chester City Ladies in the next round of the Challenge Cup.

Squad - Lizzie, Sam B, Kathryn (Cyp's) Caroline, Tallulah, Cloe A, Heather, Gail, Sue, Brogan, Tracey, Sarah, Hayley, Chloe B, Becki, Beth