An eventful afternoon for Bishop Ladies once again in a game that had everything. Goals, cards, extra time and penalties…
The game was scheduled to be played at Heritage Park, home of Bishop Auckland AFC, but due to pitch conditions the NERWFL Cup tie was switched to King James.
Still approximately 90-100 spectators were there to watch the events unfold. From the first whistle the game was an end to end affair with chances at both ends.
The Boro Rangers keep was forced into a fantastic save from Emma Wright’s low drive before being called into action to keep out Katie Raines powerful effort with another top save.
At the other end debutant keeper Steph Solway was called into action with a series of good saves to preserve parity.
Just after the half hour mark the deadlock was broken. Emma Wright firing home after a period of pressure eventually told. Her long range drive finding the roof of the net. 1-0.
Just before the break a well worked move resulting in Gemma Marshall being denied by a good stop from the visiting keeper.
HT – Bishop Auckland Ladies 1 Boro Rangers 0
The visitors found their way level early in the second period, possession sloppily squandered in our own defensive third and Rangers capitalised through Jade Featherstone. 1-1.
Bishops reacted positively and retook the lead soon after the visitor’s leveller. Emma Wright once again confidently firing home after a good through ball to claim her second of the game. 2-1.
The flurry of goals early in the second half continued – unfortunately for Bishops, the visitors countered and Jade Danks raced away and finished well. 2-2.
Both sides continued to make chances but Steph Solway was in fine form for us and at the other end we couldn’t find the final pass to fully capitalise on our good moments.
On 82 minutes a left wing corner wasn’t dealt with at the front post and was bundled home by Isobel Doyle. 2-3.
We threw caution to the wind and had 5 forwards on the pitch in an effort to get the equaliser.
Natasha Napier making her welcome return from long term injury being one of them. With just 2 minutes left a free kick was awarded fully 35 yards out.
Up stepped Beth Vasey, who had marshalled the backline superbly throughout the game. Her powerful free kick arrowed into the top left hand corner much to the delight of teammates and spectators alike.
Kari Rostron instigating the celebratory pile on with an excellent rugby tackle! 3-3.
Extra time it was then. In terms of chances there wasn’t a lot of clear cut opportunities. A speculative looping Boro Rangers effort hit the outside of the post was the best chance for them.
Then a player from each side were given red cards in an incident that was out of character in terms of the rest of the game, tensions boiled over but normality returned quickly and it was back to football. We looked dangerous on the break.
The best opportunities coming when after a good diagonal ball released Gemma Marshall but her pass when well placed was cut out before it found Emma Wright. In another situation it was Emma Wright who couldn’t find Katie Smith when equally well placed.
FT – Bishop Auckland Ladies 3 Boro Rangers 3
So penalties… a penalty shoot-out is always a bit of a lottery and both keepers had played well and made some terrific saves.
In short there were misses, saves and all the drama you expect from these things but with the 7th Bishop spot kick Beth Vasey followed up her wonder free kick by slotting the decisive penalty home and putting Bishops into the next round!
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
