Brent 2-4 Barking & Dagenham
BARKING & DAGENHAM ARE ONE step closer to qualification for this season’s London Girls’ League Super Six following a hard-fought victory on the road at Brent. Cruising with a 3-0 lead at half-time, the visitors looked home and dry. But a second half fightback brought the hosts right back into contention before skipper Jona Islami’s sensational match-saving block and Abbie Blewitt’s late nerve-settler.
The district side had the perfect start when the Barking & Dagenham high-press exploited a tentative Brent backline in the opening minute. Blewitt and Simonette Johnson were at the heart of the chaos, with the former forcing an error inside the box before poking the ball wide for Aaliyah Felix to stroke an early lead.
One Team
And for the whole of the first half, there remained only one team in it.
Malaika Uwandji broke clear in the fifth minute, sprinting through one-on-one before drawing a fine save from the keeper.
Felix had a golden chance to double her tally for the morning five minutes later, but fired wide.
Uwandji made no mistake though on seventeen minutes when the waspish winger darted one way, then the other, to wrong-foot her opponent then catching the keeper out with an off-balance finish via a powerful toe-poke from fifteen yards that no-one saw coming.
Johnson’s shot on the angle from twenty yards almost squeezed its way in four minutes later, with Blewitt, Johnson and Paloma Correia also going close.
On the stroke of half-time, the third goal finally came. Johnson was the architect, slipping the ball behind Brent’s back-line for Correia to sprint through and slot past the on-coming keeper for a comfortable lead.
Bungled
Or so Barking & Dagenham thought.
Instead, the holders bungled their way through the restart, lacking the intensity they had worked so hard to create.
And in doing so, the home side were presented with first one, then two, absolute gifts of goals, wrapped up in shiny paper, with big, loopy bows and a pair of labels marked ‘Calamity.’
At 3-2, Barking & Dagenham were in trouble. Hesitancy and panic swept in and the away side were there for the taking.
Then came the resistance, inspired as ever by the talismanic Islami. As another error in the six-yard box presented Brent’s hovering forward with an empty goal at her mercy, suddenly from somewhere, the captain slid across to slam the door shut with a sensational block tackle that saw the ball spiral high and wide, leaving the captain in a pained heap on the goal-line.
Ruled Out
It was as good as a goal. In fact better, as it signalled to her side the gold standards Islami expected in defence of the lead – and from then they never looked back.
Uwandji, Felix and Correia spurned further chances. And Johnson saw a trademark run from the halfway line and buried finish ruled out for hand-ball at the start of her wonderful solo effort.
In the end, it was Blewitt’s third of the season that confirmed the result. After her own corner was only half-cleared, the Hunters Hall midfielder was alert to the loose ball on the edge of the box, and smashed through the crowd to make it 4-2.
It was the right result for a Barking & Dagenham side who only conceded three chances throughout the whole of the hour. But two of them led to goals. And without Islami, it would have been three. Tightening up in both boxes will be vital if they are to wrap up qualification with their final group game versus Barnet on March 2nd.
Barking & Dagenham: Emily Peka (Valence); Jona Islami (Roding); Gilda Hasani (Northbury); Abbie Blewitt (Hunters Hall); Paloma Correia (George Carey); Amelia Hussain (Richard Alibon); Malaika Uwandji (Roding); Aaliyah Felix (Goresbrook); Simonette Johnson (St Peter’s); Comfort Mazel (Godwin); Maria Matteus (George Carey)