Park Ladies draw 1-1 with Newmarket Town Development
Park Ladies picked up a point as they drew 1-1 with Newmarket Town Development.
The ladies returned to league action after a couple of weeks off to face a young opponent, and started off slowly as they tried to put some attacks together – with some rust clearly showing.
Newmarket settled into the game and began to press and look for an opening, with Park also trying to find some momentum but struggling to get their normal passing game going.
The ladies did manage to break through on several occasions, with the busy Hana Howsam making several good runs through the defence but not executing the final ball.
Newmarket were looking for an opener and a break through the Park back line forced a good one-on-one stop from Sian Holcroft to keep the scores level. From the resultant corner, a goalmouth scramble ensued and Laura Coe was on hand to hook the ball away off the line.
Park kept trying, with a good effort from Erin Powell only finding the keeper's hands and Amy Hunt heading wide from a corner before Charlotte Marshall just missed getting on the end of another.
A sub-par performance from the ladies first half meant they were lucky to go in to the break level, with the scoreline goalless.
A few choice words from the manager and a couple of changes saw a much better start to the second half.
Park began to pass the ball around, and within two minutes of the restart took the lead. Some good play saw Georgia Stimson receive the ball and put it through to Hunt, who held off her defender to smash home at the near post.
The ladies continued to try and break through, but could not quite find the final ball. Several more corners caused problems, but unfortunately Marshall got the ball stuck under her feet when free at the far post and was unable to to convert.
Hunt won a free kick after a Newmarket defender resorted to rugby tactics and tackled her to the ground - Fran Plitsch put the ball into the box, but no one managed to get on the end of it.
Plitsch thought she'd scored a second shortly afterwards - receiving the ball on the edge of the box she hit a first-time rocket towards goal, only to see the Newmarket keeper tip it over the bar.
Newmarket changed formation and pushed for an equaliser, and eventually this came after a forward was brought down in the area and the resulting penalty was duly dispatched.
The balance of play tipped toward Newmarket and they pushed for a winner, but Park stood firm and held out for a point.
It was a point earned but a poor game by Park’s standards, and on a better day they could have been out of sight.
Hana Howsam was named player of the match after some excellent work, proving to be an absolute thorn in the side of the Newmarket defence.
