Result : Southgate 2 – 1 Brom & Beck
Match Report : Allan Dick
Southgate’s second home fixture of the season saw the team taking on Bromley and Beckenham. The rousing 7-1 victory of the 2nd team (a massive congratulations to them) very much buoyed the 1st team as they took to the field.
In the preseason fixture, ‘Gate had drawn 2-2 with the south London outfit and felt they should have won. This matchup had all the hallmarks of a tight and tense affair, and it certainly lived up to that billing!
Southgate welcomed back Grace O’Malley-Kumar in the forward line after a brief spell of injury.
Southgate started in much the same manner they’d finished the previous week, immediately on the hunt for goals. The pressure paid off in the second quarter (?) when Lorna Cruickshank added yet another goal to her season’s tally, coming from a penalty corner with a well-worked deflection back to the injector.
B & B came back into the game and were rewarded with a goal in the third quarter. The Southgate defence was caught off guard momentarily by a quick opposition shot. However, the home side quickly struck back with Lorna Cruickshank (again!) being credited with the goal. Though this one was not to take anything away from the fantastic build-up, it was an unfortunate deflection off of a B&B defender that ended up in her own goal.
There were further chances for both sides as the game neared a conclusion. The most dramatic being a near 90-metre carry by Southgate’s Ellie Robinson. She seemed to drift past B&B defender one after the other only to see her final effort narrowly go past the goal post.
The final minutes saw B&B looking to grab something from this tightly contested match. Southgate, however, with the memory of the Barnes game a fortnight ago still fresh, managed to hold on for the victory.
Next Saturday, the 1st team are again at home for a 2 pm pushback against Hampstead and Westminster 2s. It looks set to be another close-fought affair, with H & W just 3 points behind Southgate.