Ladies Team Progress in Cup

Women`s F.A. Cup Sponsored by EON
2 Round

Colchester United Ladies 7
(Longhurst 3, Dunmore 2, Griffiths 1, Krista Hultquist 1)
Gillingham Ladies 2 (Payne 2)

Colchester entertained Gillingham at Heybridge Swifts Scraley Road ground in the second round of the Womens FA Cup and rewarded the good sized crowd with a 7-2 victory. Colchester could have been 3 up in the first ten minutes but Toni Smith and Kate Longhurst were unable to find the target.

Then in the 13th minute, Gillingham had their first attack and Gina Payne found the back of the net to put the Gills ahead against the run of play. It only took 2 minutes before the equaliser arived when Hannah Porter’s throw was knocked on by Longhurst into the path of Danielle Grifiths, who took the ball past the defender before placing her shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net for a neat finish. 3 minutes later and Colchester were leading, when Kayleigh Morgan’s strong run down the right ended with a measured pass to Longhurst, who scored with ease.

Colchester continued to press, but Gillingham had a good outlet in the impressive Payne up front, who tried to get Gillingham back on level terms, but Louise Murphy looked safe in the Colchester goal.. In the 36th minute Colchester forced a corner. Porter crossed and Warnes headed on for Krista Hultquist to head home for 3-1. The scores stayed the same until the break.

H-T 3-1

Gillingham surprised Colchester in the first minute of the second half with a quick attack which ended with Payne securing her second goal of the game and which proved a kick up the backside for the Colchester players. Jane Swift and Jade Morgan then combined to stop another Gillingham attack.

Emma Wake began to grab hold of the midfield as Colchester tried to regain their composure and to turn their superiority into goals, and in the 66th minute they scored an important fourth when Longhurst, looking suspiciously offside, broke through, rounded the keeper and made it 4-2. This spurred

Colchester on again, and 9 minutes later it was 5-2 when Kayleigh Morgan made another great run down the right and pulled the ball back for Longhurst to grab her fourth hat-trick in successive games.

Manager Steve Downey made 3 substitutions with Rosee Golding, Emma Dunmore and Laura Rhodes replacing Swift, Smith and K.Morgan, who all made important contributions to the game.

With 6 minutes left, Dumore raced down the left, cut inside, went past the keeper and scored Colchester’s 6th, equalling their tally in the first round of the cup at Oxford City.

With only 2 minutes remaining Warnes passed to Longhurst who lobbed the ball (quite a bit higher than intended) over a Gillingham defender, into the path of Dunmore, who shot into the net to wrap up a fine 7-2 victory.

The players, management and supporters now await the outcome of the 3rd round draw on Monday.



Written by Sparkles.