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City Ladies go top (March 30, 2008) After the frustration of having several matches in hand, which had given a misleading impression in the league table, City today finally got to the top after a double-header against Teynham Gunners.
Teynham 1 City 8
This was never going to be a comfortable afternoon for City coach Lorna Shilling to organise. Two matches (half-an-hour each way in each) had to be approached as if they were entirely separate ventures. Some of the team felt it was an occasion on which to show that they could play in less familiar positions, and Lorna gave them the opportunity. However, for the first game she stuck more or less to the tried and tested.
As with so many matches this season, City faced a team struggling to contain them. But that in itself not only does City no favours in terms of improvement but causes frustration if a total demolition job is not achieved.
 Missed chances became countless throughout the afternoon. City took fifteen minutes to take full command. Debbie Blackmore, Natalie Bowen and, particularly, Natalie Farbrace were the keys to making that happen. Jenny Collins opened the scoring and five minutes later Debbie Burgess added yet another of her impressively worked goals. But a defensive lapse allowed Teynham to have the rare pleasure of seeing Sarah Hardy beaten. With a half-time lead of only 2-1, things were not going as well as City had expected. The second half was much more controlled and in spite of the missed opportunities, they played some attractive football while Teynham rarely got over the half-way line. Emma Hughes and Jenny Collins made the game secure and City went on to achieve another of their substantial wins with further goals from Avril Spary (2), Hughes and a final superb strike over the goalkeeper by Natalie Bowen.
City 5 Teynham Gunners 0
Technically this was City’s “home” match yet, ironically, it was the one in which they became frustrated and almost lost sight of the objective in the desire to enjoy themselves. Sarah Hardy appeared as a striker, which was not exactly a flight of fancy since she played there for Whitstable, while Debbie Burgess took a central defensive role, which she performed with calm assurance, though not holding back when it came to taking the ball all the way upfield to continue looking for goals.
Again self annoyance built up, mainly because chances were squandered or offside decisions were interpreted as wrong. It’s not often that the City Ladies vent their displeasure at officials, but here even that began to appear. In the event, though, they won well enough with goals from Hannah Smith (2), Emma Hughes, Carmela Emekwue and Jenny Collins, who had taken Sarah Hardy’s place in goal but still had time to go into the opposition’s penalty area and accept Sarah’s pass to score. It was a strange but ultimately successful afternoon.
City squad: Sarah Hardy, Jenny Collins; Wendy Smith, Vicki Fusco, Rachel Tracey, Natalie Farbrace, Natalie Bowen, Debbie Blackmore, Emma Hughes, Debbie Burgess, Hannah Smith, Camrlea Emekwue, Avril Spary.
More David Mullaney photos in 'Picture Gallery'
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