After a frustrating run of results, the Green Lionesses claimed their first victory since October in beating Shaftesbury 2-1 at Victoria Park on Sunday afternoon.
Anna Gauvain’s side had a handful of chances but it was Codie Le Flem – within the first two minutes – and Ruby Smith who scored for GFC with the visitors pulling one back late on and threatening a comeback.
‘Getting the three points was massive for us,’ said the GFC Women manager.
‘Performance-wise, I think we’ve played a lot better in other games, but as I said, three points, can’t complain.
‘I just think we’re a lot better side than what we showed today.
'In possession – we spoke about it at half-time – I think in other games we’ve controlled parts of the game better than we did today, and finishing, how many chances we had, but that comes with confidence and it’s lacking in areas and we’ve got to get that back up, so hopefully it’s just a kick-start for us to push on for the rest of the season.’
Shaftesbury, who are at the bottom of the Southern Region Women’s Football League Division One South, pulled one back through Lilly Greeves in the 80th minute and threatened a late comeback putting pressure on the GFC as the clock ticked towards full time.
‘Alana kept us in the game, made some fantastic saves, really brave,’ said Gauvain.
She also praised player-of-the-match Steph Batiste.
‘Steph got player-of-the-match and we moved her around a little bit, we were struggling with that centre-mid role today but she stepped in in the end. I think Steph and Alana were outstanding today,’ said Gauvain.
Green Lionesses back up to sixth with victory
It is no secret that the Green Lionesses have had a poor run of results recently with a number of key players missing, but they capitalised on their best opportunity to get back to winning ways against Shaftesbury – the team their previous win was over in October, and who sit at the bottom of the Southern Region Women’s League Division One South, having won only one of the 11 league games they have played so far this season.
Sunday afternoon’s game was by no means GFC’s best performance with a number of good opportunities spurned to put the game to bed, but they started well with Codie Le Flem opening the scoring within the first two minutes.
Adrienne Leech set Le Flem up to slot past Shaftesbury goalkeeper Mollie Joyce into the bottom left corner.
It was pretty much one-way traffic with Alana Hockey only being called upon to make a few comfortable saves.
In the sixth minute the Guernsey goalkeeper was brought into action for the first time as Nicola Castle had a go from inside the area but it was saved comfortably.
Minutes later Shaftesbury had their best chance to go level as Castle tried again but her effort ricocheted off the post.
In the 13th minute Donna Gallienne’s corner found Steph Batiste who headed the ball down towards goal, but was just off target and after a brief goalmouth scramble Ruby Smith was there to double Guernsey’s lead with a neat finish from close range.
At the other end Hockey was called upon again in the 15th minute to make an excellent save to stop Lilly Greeves' shot from the left corner of the area.
Towards the end of the first half GFC wasted a few excellent chances to take a more comfortable lead, with manager Anna Gauvain saying that finishing was one of the things that she thought was not quite there for her side on Sunday.
In the 25th minute Smith was through on goal and from the edge of the six-yard box dragged a shot just wide.
Ten minutes later Smith was through again and worked her way across to the right before drawing a strong save out of Joyce.
Minutes before half-time Joyce was forced into another save as Le Flem fired from outside of the area. The Shaftesbury goalkeeper got a hand to the effort and pushed it around the post.
The second-half was very much the same with the Green Lionesses creating many more chances than their opposition, but they just could not find a way to increase their lead.
One of their best opportunities in the 70th minute came from Smith, who was once again through on goal and fired at Joyce who pushed the ball back into the feet of the Guernsey goalscorer who struck the rebound against the crossbar.
Hockey kept the hosts in the game in the closing stages and made a terrific double save parrying out Greeves’ first effort before coming off her line to grab the second.
With 10 minutes to be played Gallienne had a go from the corner of the box, but did not look to trouble Joyce too much.
A minute later Becca Roberts pulled one back with an excellent shot from distance, this time completely evading Hockey, and what should have ended up being a fairly comfortable win for the Green Lionesses ended up being a lot closer than anticipated after the first 20 minutes.
They moved up one place to sixth in the Southern Region Women’s Division One South with Sunday’s other results seeing AFC Stoneham and Bursledon share the points in a 4-4 thriller, while Havant & Waterlooville won 1-0 away at Bournemouth Sports Reserves and Bemerton Heath Harlequins played out a goalless draw with AFC Varsity.
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