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City Women 1 Eastbourne Borough 1

- 17/01/2010

Canterbury City Women 1 Eastbourne Borough 1

After a big cup win against Island Eagles, City’s Women hoped to resume their league programme with confidence restored. As it was their game at Hersden was typical of so many previous league matches this season.

Their football was often a pleasure to watch, swift and sometimes intricate passing movements breaking down Eastbourne’s midfield and chances being created time after time. There was even a goal that one visiting spectator described as “as good as you would see anywhere”. And still they failed to get the winning points needed to pull themselves up the table.

Now without the attacking skill of Debbie Burgess, the side largely depended up front on Avril Spary. She had a number of scoring opportunities but, like others who had sight of goal, could not quite hit the target.

Losing Debbie Blackmore after aggravating an existing injury was a major setback at a time when it seemed that City were comfortably the better side. A remarkable long range shot by Hannah Gardner took them ahead before half-time but after Eastbourne took advantage of some disorganised City defending to equalise, the look of a draw became increasingly strong. Not that City ever stopped pushing forward and dominating all areas.

City are clearly a better side than their record suggests and are capable of moving up the table, perhaps starting at Crowborough on Sunday.