Havering 2-2 Barking & Dagenham
IN A GAME OF few chances, Havering and Barking & Dagenham shared their London Girls’ League points with Jo Mecvari’s ninth and Abbie Blewitt’s tenth of the season book-ending a brace of goals for the home side. The result means a draw or better will secure the London schools’ title for the BAD Girls, with future visitors Wokingham in exactly the same position in what promises to be an exciting final game of the season.
On this occasion, it was the visitors who took the lead.
In the fifth minute, Abbie Blewitt scrapped her way forward after breaking up a Havering attack and slipped a slide rule pass forward to top-scorer Theresa Ezea who had pulled out wide on the right. The St Peter’s forward drove into enemy territory before centring to Blewitt, whose intelligent run had seen her picked out in space.
Blocked
Her attempt from inside the box was blocked, but the loose ball ricocheted across the box, where Mecvari was bursting forward to join the fun and smash home.
Keeper Grace Attwood-Adams was down sharply to snaffle a deflected corner on the line, but she was powerless to stop the Havering equaliser when Barking & Dagenham were punished for conceding possession cheaply in midfield.
Neither side fashioned a clear-cut chance on target for the remainder of the half, with Attwood-Adams comfortably handling any long-range, speculative efforts that came her way.
A set-piece gave Havering the lead. A well-rehearsed corner routine caught Barking & Dagenham on their heels as the hosts attacked the incoming ball more aggressively, burying the ball into the bottom corner for the lead.
The visitors wrestled back control, but struggled to break their determined opponents down, with just Paloma Correia’s hopeful effort midway through the second half to show for their efforts.
Lifeline
Havering were tiring though. And from those weary challenges came two challenges that gave Barking & Dagenham a lifeline via a pair of Blewitt free-kicks.
The first – twelve minutes from time – was smashed goalwards from thirty yards, clearing the Havering rearguard and keeper before cannoning back off the crossbar to deny the away side an equaliser.
The second came four minutes later.
This time Blewitt struck from five yards further back and made contact much less sweetly, the ball looking fairly innocuous as it drifted towards goal.
However, a last second dip wrong-footed the home keeper, turning the attempt into a perfect yorker to bounce off her shins and over the line, rescuing a vital point for Barking & Dagenham – a clear lesson in the importance of hitting the target.
The momentum was now with Barking & Dagenham, with Havering unable to muster an attempt on goal since their early second half strike.
But both sides would concede a draw was a fair result in a highly competitive and well-fought encounter.
Barking & Dagenham: Grace Attwood-Adams (The Leys), Paloma Correia (George Carey), Theresa Ezea (St Peter’s), Simonette Johnson (St Peter’s), Aaliyah Felix (Goresbrook), Lilly-Mae Fisher (Roding), Lily Imititikua (St Peter’s), Bella Yorke (Richard Alibon), Abbie Blewitt (Hunters Hall), Jo Mecvari (Southwood), Bella Hines (Northbury)