Under-19s suffer defeat to Robins

Our Women Under-19s concluded the first phase of the Professional Game Academy League campaign with a 2-1 defeat at Bristol City on Wednesday.

We got off to the perfect start on our return to league action when Heidi Hills made it five goals in two games after she reacted quickest to Mia Endacott’s penalty being saved to slot home on the rebound inside the opening six minutes.

The Robins responded and were back on level terms by the midway point of the first half. A powerful left-footed strike from Chloe Giddings past Sophie Jackson, before the home side took the lead deep in injury-time of the opening 45 minutes as Giddings grabbed a brace with a composed finish.

In a second period hampered by injuries and stoppages in play, we were unable to find an equaliser and consigned to defeat in our final fixture of the first phase. Our young side will now compete in Division Two once the second phase begins later this month.

Competing in our first PGA League fixture since the opening week of October, we couldn’t have asked for a better start when we were awarded a penalty after Hills, who raced on to Grace Breen’s free-kick into the box, was brought down by Ella Stowell on six minutes. Mia Endacott took the spot-kick and although the Robins shot stopper denied our captain down to her left, Hills reacted quickest to the loose ball to slot the ball through the legs of Stowell from a tight angle. However, the home side managed to get themselves level just 10 minutes later, as Giddings collected the ball just inside the area, on the right side, switched on to her left foot and fired a powerful effort past Jackson.

That switched the momentum into their favour as Jackson was called into action with two big saves, denying Nia Lewis before pushing Emily Giddings’ effort from the edge of the box over the bar. We had a number of corners to defend in the final quarter of the first period, providing a resilient display in those but, in the third minute of injury-time, the hosts took the lead as Giddings raced behind our backline and showed composure  to beat Jackson in a one-on-one situation.

We were quick out of the blocks after the restart as Hills, showing good footwork to advance to the edge of the area, saw her left-footed curler pushed around the post by Stowell at full stretch. Lucy Barraclough then picked out Grace Bellwood just outside the 18-yard box who quickly switched on to her right foot but failed to direct her first-time shot on target. From that moment onwards, the second period was hindered by stoppages in play with injures and ultimately slowed down the momentum of the contest.

The last half-hour very few opportunities, with the Robins going closest to adding to the scoreline on 74 minutes when Lewis’ looping shot crashed against the woodwork before Jackson got down low to her right to stop a low drive from distance. We played the last quarter-of-an-hour with 10 players as Hills was unable to continue due to injury and the one-player advantage gave the home side the confidence to see out the win on a frustrating afternoon for our youngsters.