Six From Six for Buoyant Glassgirls!

Goals from Lili-Beth Bown, Lyndsey Glover and Niamh Deasy saw the Glassgirls emerge 3-0 winners against a resilient Leek Town side who pushed Any Fisher’s side all the way before Stourbridge pulled away in the closing stages.

The win means Stour are now five points clear of Solihull Moors in second place, albeit having played a game more, while the clean sheet makes it a whole year since a goal was last conceded in a home League fixture!

The win was hard-fought but well deserved, according to manager Andy Fisher after the game…

“We knew it was going to be a really tough and physical game, and that’s exactly what it was. I think if we’d taken our chances it might have been a bigger scoreline, but they made it really difficult for us as expected.

“It’s the way it is now, people want to come here and beat us, you know. We are top of the table now so it adds that extra dimension to it, but it was nothing that we hadn’t worked on throughout the week.

“We said to them at half time, just relax, calm yourselves down. We were 1-0 ahead, and we always have a good second half here and we were confident we could take the game to them, and we did.

“We’ve got to stay humble. If we get too excited and ahead of ourselves, we’ll slip. We’ve got three games in eight days, let’s have nine points after those games. That’s one done and we’ll focus now on Wem which will bring it’s own different challenges.”

There was one changes from the previous week’s starting line-up at Doncaster, with Lyndsey Glover coming in for Esme Moran, as Stour set out in search of a win that would extend their two-point lead in the table.

But the opening stages were largely cagey, with few sights of goal until Mil Rogers fed Deasy on 14 minutes only for the striker to fire over, before the striker then headed over at the far post three minutes later from Glover’s corner.

Leek were giving Stour a run for the money in a fairly even first 25 minutes, and might have taken the lead when the ball fell to Chantelle Gallagher in the area only for Sophie Levick to get in a vital block.

Rogers was causing the visiting defence all sorts of trouble and might have done better when set free by Levick’s ball out of defence, but her shot lacked the power and precision to alarm Beth Cottrell in the Leek goal, and a minute later she was almost in again, only to be pulled up for a foul on Chloe Cotterill.

Stour were knocking on the door though, and took the lead with 32 minutes played. Glover’s ball in from the right weas intercepted by Cassie Hyde, but she could only divert it into the path of LILI-BETH BOWN whose first-time strike from the edge of the area left Cottrell helpless.

The Glassgirls were soon in search of a second goal. Rogers and Glover combined to set Deasy in on goal but her shot was well saved by Cottrell, Alex Nicklin fired wide, Rogers volleyed straight at Cottrell, and then saw another effort blocked on the line by Cotterill, and then Glover forced a diving save from the keeper as Stour piled up the chances in the closing stages of the half.

For all that, however, the lead remained a slender one at the break, and the chances continued to come and go in the early stages of the second period, with Deasy twice unable to convert Glover crosses in the first three minutes, shooting narrowly over and then straight into the arms of the relieved Cottrell.

With the hour mark approaching, a clever ball from Rogers found Glover in space at the far post but she could only fire over the bar, and then Stourbridge came closer still with Nicklin’s corner turned goalwards by a defender and cleared off the line, with Stour appeals for a goal going unheeded.

Twenty minutes into the half the second goal at last came. Bown’s threaded pass found LYNDSEY GLOVER with time and space to steady herself before drilling a low shot across the keeper and inside the far post.

Leek responded with a chance for Katie Maya who got in behind the Glassgirls defence before firing in a shot which Amie Preston pushed away for a corner, while Ella Pemberton could only fire wide from inside the penalty area.

Any hopes of a late resurgence for the visitors were dashed, however, ten minutes from time as Stour added a third. Once again, Glover was involved as her low cross from the right gave NIAMH DEASY the chance to hammer a volley in on the stretch at the back post.

There might have been a fourth goal from Esme Moran in stoppage time, with Cottrell tipping brilliantly over, but there was no denying Stourbridge the points to send the crowd of 187 home happy.

(Photo - Anthony Dunn)

Stourbridge line-up

Amie Preston, Meg Hadley (Jess Bate 70), Zoe Clarke, Sophie Levick, Sophie Heaselgrave, Ellie McGovern (Thea Clearkin 78), Alex Nicklin (Esme Moran 70), Lili-Beth Bown (Esme Moran 70), Lyndsey Glover, Millie Rogers (Sarah Hazell 78), Niamh Deasy.