Lawrence strikes Late to seal Glassgirls Win!

With their nearest challengers Sporting Khalsa and Doncaster Rovers Belles engaged in Cup action, Andy Fisher’s team picked up their ninth League win on the bounce thanks to goals from Niamh Deasy and Amber Lawrence (pictured), while the defensive unit limited Leafield to half chances at the other end to pick up their seventh clean sheet from ten games.

Manager Andy Fisher felt the win was deserved but never plain sailing after a battle just as intense as the FAWNL Plate meeting between the teams three weeks previously.

“It had a similar feel to the Cup game we played down here. I felt we were on top from minute one right to the end again. I felt we dominated in terms of possession in their half.

“He’s [Aidy Clements] got a really good team, they’re going to take points off opposition in this League without a shadow of a doubt. They’ve got a threat all the time on the counter attack. We had a five minute patch in the second half where they broke into the game a little bit and maybe had a chance or so.

“I just felt our quality towards the end, and that’s proven by the subs really. Alex Nicklin come on, Lamby comes on, and they combine and score the goal and finished the game really.

Stourbridge began on the front foot, but as so often this season chances were limited in the opening stages as the two sides eased their way into the game, although Deasy might have had better luck when she chanced her luck with an instinctive flick goalwards which rolled wide of Colette Bell’s right hand post.

Gradually though the match began to come to life. Good work by Zoe Clarke set up Lyndsey Glover for the first effort on goal, which Bell dealt with comfortably, and then Esme Moran found Glover who netted only to be denied by the offside flag. Stour were pushing hard now, and Moran tried her luck from distance with a shot that flew over the bar.

Ten minutes from the break, the Glassgirls finally edged ahead, as Glover sprang on a misplaced pass to help the ball on for NIAMH DEASY, the striker getting there just ahead of Bell to touch it beyond her and over the line. Deasy picked up a knock in the challenge, but continued after treatment, although it would eventually see her withdrawn at the break as a precaution.

Leafield made a couple of changes at the interval, and were close to an instant reward from their best chance of the game as former Glassgirl Thea Clearkin, on her Leafield debut, met Kathryn Pagan’s pull back in space, only to scuff her shot wide of the far post.

Stour responded well. Hannah Fishwick shot wide after taking the ball past a defender, and then over after a spell of Stourbridge pressure, while there was a half chance at the other end as Sophie Heaselgrave headed away a Leafield corner to Daisy-Mai Clements on the edge of the area, who could only shoot wide.

Glover volleyed over via the slightest of deflections, and then saw her resulting corner go straight across the six yard box with nobody able to apply a touch that would surely have turned it in, before Lili-Beth Bown hit the side netting from a narrow angle.

The Glassgirls were knocking on the door as Fishwick unselfishly laid the ball off for Glover to shoot straight at Bell again, and for a while it seemed a second goal just would not come. But when it did, it was the substitutes who combined, with Alex Nicklin chasing down a ball across the area at the far post, before pulling it back into the path of AMBER LAWRENCE, and the striker calmly wrong-footed Bell as she slid the ball home.

With nine minutes to play it wasn’t quite ‘job done’, but Stourbridge were able to keep the visitors at arms’ length in the closing minutes to see out the win.

(Photo - Anthony Dunn, Focus Dunn Sports Photography)

Stourbridge line-up

Amie Preston, Meg Hadley, Zoe Clarke, Sophie Heaselgrave, Sophie Levick, Ellie McGovern, Lili-Beth Bown (Jess Bate 85), Esme Moran (Alex Nicklin 60), Lyndsey Glover (Amber Lawrence 74), Hannah Fishwick (Sarah Hazell 85), Niamh Deasy (Millie Rogers HT).