25/2/17 – London Girls’ League

Tower Hamlets 0-4 Barking & Dagenham

Impressive

LAYLA-MAY DUFFIELD’S FIRST district goal – along with Emily Brown’s opener and Pahris Cotterell’s brace – earned Barking & Dagenham their first win of this season’s London Girls’ League and kept their faint chance of lifting the title alive. However, whilst the scoreline suggests a routine run-out for the district U11s girls, the reality was that Tower Hamlets offered stern resistance with a constant goal threat and refusal to yield.

The hosts began on the offensive, pinning Barking & Dagenham into their own half as Tina Mutuale and Aaliyah Young had to be on alert in the visitors’ rearguard.

Indeed, it wasn’t until midway through the first half until Barking & Dagenham registered their first real attempts on goal. First Nour Khalfaoui’s close-range effort was repelled by the Tower Hamlets keeper before Cotterell fired wide from the rebound.

Deadlock Broken

Moments later though, the visitors were ahead when Kaydee Bhavnani’s goal-kick was taken down by Khalfaoui who squared to Cotterell. A pass inside found Brown on the edge of the box, who stabbed right-footed through the crowd to break the deadlock.

It took almost ten minutes for Barking & Dagenham to craft another opening as they found themselves entrenched in their own half once more. This time, Khalfaoui’s neat turn and drive forced a smart save, whilst Brown’s follow-up was straight at the keeper.

Kick Down The Middle

Just before halftime, the lead was doubled – again from a Bhavnani kick down the middle. The bouncing ball proved too much to cope with for Tower Hamlets’ defence, with Cotterell taking advantage of the indecision to steal in for a goal that took her to out-right third place on the districts’ all-time scorers list.

Before the break, Grace Young scooped over when clear but the lead was doubled shortly after the restart. Duffield had the opportunity to shoot but instead chose to play it short to Brown on the edge of the area. Brown drove into the penalty area until a challenge diverted the ball once more to Duffield who swept in first-time to make it three.

The impressive Duffield almost returned the favour moments later when centring to Brown, only for her team-mate’s shot to rise over the bar.

Flowing

Cotterell then picked out the keeper after collecting Grace Young’s well-placed corner and later failed to convert when a flowing whole-team move picked her out in the area.

However, Cotterell made no mistake when – with five minutes remaining – she shimmied into the area, glided past her marker, and poked the ball past the keeper for her second of the afternoon.

Both teams had time left to rattle the crossbar in a game that was end-to-end from the first whistle to the last. It was Barking & Dagenham’s superior finishing though that claimed the points as they go into their final group game against Barnet next weekend with their hopes of progression very much alive.

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)