Serena Smith
Women's Football found themselves in a must win game vs Exeter 1sts. With only the top 3 positions in the league guaranteeing safety, it was a must win for both sides with Exeter needing a win to increase their league title hopes.
Women’s Football found themselves in a must win game vs Exeter 1sts. With only the top 3 positions in the league guaranteeing safety, it was a must win for both sides with Exeter needing a win to increase their league title hopes.
The reverse fixture saw an Exeter 2-1 win but high off the previous weeks impressive 3-1 win against Varsity rivals UOB, UWE came out flying.
Within 15 minutes, UWE were 2-0 up with some impressive goals from Bristol City LFC midfielder Olivia Fergusson. After a superb solo run, Fergusson smashed home to give UWE the lead and shortly after, some great link up play with Alys Hinchcliffe resulted in another good finish to double UWE’s lead.
Against the run of play, Exeter brought one back with a scrappy goal from a corner but UWE maintained the majority of possession and continued to put pressure on Exeter’s defence. The UWE dominance eventually materialised into the hosts being awarded a penalty kick from an Exeter handball in the box. Charlotte Cresswell slotted home the penalty to bring back the 2 goal advantage. Hinchcliffe increased UWE’s lead to 4-1 just before the break, completing a solo run with a cool finish. After a fantastic first half, UWE went in at half time with a 3 goal advantage.
It didn’t stay at 4-1 for too long after a hopeful Exeter shot (cross) found the top right hand corner bringing the game to 4-2. Any chances of an Exeter comeback was crushed when Becca Slevin scored her 2nd goal of the season after a scramble from a UWE corner. At 5-2, Exeter continued to battle hard and managed to grab another goal back after a shot from inside the box made it 5-3. However, just after the hour mark, Fergusson completed her hat trick and made it 5 goals in her last 2 games for UWE. The game finished 6-3 with UWE now sitting 3rd in the table and leads to an interesting finish for the league, with any number of 4 teams still in with a chance of clinching the league title.