As the Ladies’ season comes to a close, the Ladies hosted Hessle Town down at Otley Town for a 2pm KO. After a hard earned and impressive 2-1 win over Scunthorpe with only ten players last week the Ladies were looking to gain maximum points to maintain as higher finish in the league as possible. The ladies needed to secure a point at least to finish above rivals Scunthorpe with a higher position unlikely at this stage.
The game started brightly with Guiseley putting good pressure on the ball and playing it out to Richardson and Barker on the wings, using their strength on the ball and agility to frustrate the Hessle full backs. Richardson getting in some great crosses and Barker almost taking the lead from a well saved shot early on.
With Richardson winning an early corner, Alarna Fuller whipped in fantastic ball into the box. Centreback Laura Danskin screamed for the ball and smashed home a pinpoint header leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.
Score 1-0 Guiseley.
Guiseley continued to have the majority of possesion with Hessle tending to break on the counter rather than leading up with decent passing play. Hessle used their wingers to drive down the flanks, whipping in dangerous balls causing the Guiseley defence serious headaches. Colette Haslam making her full match debut at right back settled straight into side looking extremely comfortable and working well to like up with Richardson and feed her those balls she thrives running onto. Amy Parker and Rachael White accompanied Alarna Fuller in midfield and once again worked tirelessly as a unit to support Caroline Hulme up front with all three linking up well to provide some decent chances.
Hessle started to pick up their game and had some near-miss chances with half time approaching, some communication errors at the back led to Hessle having a clear shot on goal only for Captain Katie Matthews to slide across goal and send the ball for a corner, easily a goal saving tackle. Unfortunately Hessle took their chance from the corner, despite some shoving from the Hessle players and an obstruction on the Guiseley goalkeeper Hessle met the corner and headed home for the equaliser just before half time.
HT – 1-1
After a frustrating last few minutes of the first half, Guiseley knew they had to up their game and take their chances. The back four seemed to tighten up with Caroline Cropp and Colette Haslam seeing a bit more of the ball and Guiseley using the width of the more and getting balls into Barker and Richardson. Hessle again had their fair share of chances.
After some good pressure and some close chances by Guiseley, Rachael White put Guiseley ahead after picking up the ball outside the box and smashing it home. With Guiseley now with a sting in their tale it was end to end stuff with Hessle pushing on forward and using long ball tactics to try catch out the Guiseley defence.
Hessle bounced back with a good bowt of pressure, again equalising from a well worked corner making the score 2-2. With Colette Haslam struggling with a calf injury, she made way for sister Orla Haslam who settled in well at right back. Hessle seemed to have put their foot on the gas pushing for the winning goal, the moment almost came with Hessle awarded a penalty in the final minutes.
Boswell won the mind games and dived the right way to punch the ball clear over the bar.. this was followed by a final corner before Guiseley broke away and the final whistle was blown.
Goalscorers : Laura Danskin & Rachael White
Player of the match : Alarna Fuller
Manager Liam Kelly said after the game :-
“In my eyes two points lost rather than one point gained. Credit to Hessle, second half they gave it a real go and played with a lot of purpose going forward. We are and should be disappointed at not finishing this game off, as we start to analyze our season, the bigger picture shows we have dropped points in games we did enough to win which as played a big impact on our final League position.
As Coaching staff we are appreciative and Thankful of the players efforts these past few months, we have a very small squad now and we literally have eleven, twelve players who have carried this Club since Christmas, not only picking up points, but playing some of the best Football we have seen all year. When we have achieved we have congratulated them, when we have come short we have picked them up, but today I just feel we lost two valuable points and as a Club we can have no excuses.
But Congratulations to Danskin on her goal, been a centre back limits your opportunities to score, so well done. Same to White, this is more than deserved, since moving into Midfield she as been a different player, quality, work ethic, intelligence, confidence have all improved, and that goal will be the first of many going forward. And obviously to Boswell. Erin actually pulled of a great save during the game which will be forgotten about after the injury time penalty save, so a well done and Thank You from us all. I’m glad it was saved, for us, the joy it brought Erin but also for Fuller who played terrific today, again, and would have been a bit of a kick in the teeth for her if Erin did not save it after a good performance”
Next week the Ladies host Castleford White Rose down at Otley Town KO 2pm for their final game of the 2012/2013 season. Follow the Ladies on Twitter for all the latest updates @GuiseleyLadies