Ladies 2nd XI Vs Okehampton

So near and yet so far!

One more win is all that we need and we felt in with a shot against fellow ‘strugglers’ Okehampton.  The first 10minutes saw Exe dominate possession and territory with Becky Fagg’s scything runs cutting the defence wide open and creating several opportunities. As so often happens though, when chances aren’t taken you can get punished and Oke began to up the tempo of their game.  They opened the scoring with a crisp strike from the top of the D and thanks to some last ditch defending by the likes of Karen, Sian, Becky K and Anna we were lucky to keep it to one.

Both teams were dangerous on the break and it was another mazing run from Becky F that set up Heather for the equaliser.  Becky then saw a shot go inches wide and Emma H saw her attempt to repeat last week’s feat go inches wide.  From a PC Oke managed to scramble a second and this gave them the half time lead.

The second half saw us more composed with some excellent passages of play.  Nicole was linking up well with Heather and Becky.  When the ball was switched around the back Rachel, Lucy and Mel then fed possession to the forwards and chances were again created.  Karen likes the old short corner routine and duly stepped up to drill home a beauty for the second equaliser and her 4th of 2015.

Soon afterwards we were cooking as Lucy B fired in a great strike from the right… and now we have a dilemma.  Was it going in?  Was it wide?  Was it poached by Heather on the goal-line because she is worried someone might catch her in the goal scoring stakes??  Whatever you wish to believe it was credited to Heather, Exe were now 3-2 up and seemed to be wrenching control of the game.

Unfortunately we won’t make anything easy and with 10minutes remaining Oke equalised and we were living on the edge.  Another chance they had rolled across the goal-line before Karen cleared it, Becky R made some outstanding saves throughout the game, the ‘piece de resistance’ being a superb one on one with just minutes to go and these earned her the deserving accolade of player of the match award.

One point apiece does little to ease the fears of relegation.  Caradon can no longer catch us, but if Plym Valley or Oke win their remaining two games we must also win one to ensure staying in the South league.  Bring on Plymouth Uni next week!