Gloucester 2-3 Barking & Dagenham
A FOURTH SUCCESSIVE victory for the Barking & Dagenham girls’ district squad was fine reward for their lengthy annual pilgrimage to Gloucester. Nour Khalfaoui’s opener, Pahris Cotterell’s twenty-second district goal and Emily Brown’s late winner secured the points at the end of another memorable encounter between the two sides.
The visitors showed no ill-effects of their morning’s travel when – in the first minute – Grace Young’s slide-rule pass found Khalfaoui in the area, only for her acute-angled shot to find the side netting.
Khalfaoui proceeded to run riot in the opening exchanges, twice stinging the palms of the home keeper with threatening on-target attempts.
So it was just reward for her efforts when she netted her fourth of the season from close range in the tenth minute. The move that led to the goal began with Khalfaoui herself as she dropped deep from her striking position to lay the ball off to Cotterell. Play was then switched wide to Young on the left flank who cut inside her immediate opponent and drilled a low cross into the danger zone. Khalfaoui had made up good ground to convert from two yards out after her initial effort had been blocked on the line.
Gloucester were handed a life-line against the run of play five minutes later when an infringement in the box was harshly adjudged to be a penalty. The spot-kick was duly converted and the score was pegged back to one apiece,
That didn’t last long though as Cotterell quickly restored the advantage, robbing the Gloucester defence of possession on the edge of the penalty area and smashing the ball home – a goal that moved her to joint second place on the girls’ district all-time leading scorers list.
Fatigue
A twenty minute lull followed as the visitors began to show signs of fatigue from their early start and they struggled to create any real chances of note. Only Cotterell’s side-foot shot wide of the post, and Brown’s effort from distance, even caused a ripple of danger to the Gloucester goal.
That changed with the reintroduction of Khalfaoui for the final stages of the game, with the Hunters Hall striker forcing a save within a minute of coming back on.
Gloucester always threatened on the break with Kaydee Bhavnani showing good hands to pocket a shot from the edge of the area with a quarter of an hour remaining.
She was powerless to stop Gloucester’s equaliser however when a drilled shot from the left wing took a deflection, causing an initial effort that was going wide to pitch and turn before nestling into the far corner to make it two all.
The goal seemed to remind the visitors that they were in a game and well and truly awakened the Barking & Dagenham beast.
From the restart, Cotterell and Brown cut through the hosts’ defences with a series of one-twos, resulting in a howitzer from Brown that cannoned back off the crossbar.
Control
The same pair then took control of the game, dictating play from central midfield and knocking their opponents back onto the ropes.
So it was no surprise, with nine minutes remaining, when Brown intercepted the ball inside her own half and drove into enemy territory. With the last defender isolated, she skipped past with purpose before firing an expertly drilled shot into the bottom far corner to restore the lead.
Young and Khalfaoui had further opportunities to extend the lead however an exhausted Barking & Dagenham settled for what they had and shut up shop to ensure their unbeaten run continues.
Barking & Dagenham: K Bhavnani (Parsloes); A Young (James Cambell); L Duffield, E Brown (Godwin); T Mutuale (Henry Green); P Cotterell (Manor Longbridge); E Eskelson, N Khalfaoui, G Young (Hunters Hall)