Northern Ireland Women's Football Association

Match Report

Linfield ladies continued their Davison Frudles NIWFA Premier League campaign on Wednesday night at Billy Neil and will be disappointed with a share of the spoils, in a 2-2 draw with Cliftonville.

In a game packed with goalmouth action Linfield will be kicking themselves that poor finishing, after some excellent free flowing football allowed the visitors to leave with a point.

Straight from the kick off Linfield attacked, pressurising the Cliftonville defence and in the first fifteen minutes should have had the game won. Excellent play saw Dempster, McGuinness and Montgomery all face the goalkeeper, however all failed to convert.

Cliftonville won a corner in a rare attack and Venny losing her marker headed home off the underside of the bar. Five minutes later a loose ball on the edge of the box saw the same player stroke again with a speculative shot. Not to be detered the young Linfield team gathered themselves and pushed hard for a breakthrough. Time after time they broke through the defence only to see shots saved, flash inches wide, or defender block.

On the stroke of half time McGuinness broke again and was felled inside the box. The penalty was converted by Crawford to half the defecit.

In the second half Linfield again dominated possession creating plenty of chances and half chances. They had to wait until the half hour mark for McGuinness to steal in from the left and place the ball wide of the advancing keeper. Playing some great football at times the girls pushed hard for a winner which they would have thoroughly deserved. Not to be and the game finished as a disappointing draw.

“This was a very good footballing performance by the girls but they have learned another valuable lesson as they strive to progress. If you do not convert your possession, dominance and chances football will kick you hard” commented Manager Morrow, “that said the positives are, we created chances and did not let our heads go down, fighting hard to take something from the match”

The girls now look to next Wednesday away to Ballymena at the showgrounds in a difficult match against a strong experienced team, who have finished third behind the top two in each of the last two seasons.

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