Barking & Dagenham 13-1 Tower Hamlets

BRILLIANT BARKING & DAGENHAM maintained their fantastic form in 2022 with a second crushing win inside three days, topping their London Girls’ League group in emphatic fashion. Hat-tricks for Aysia Matabaro and Elizabeth Dimitrova; braces for Erin Taylor and Zoe Freeman; plus, further strikes from Chi-Chi Musa-Onyeka, Hazel Walker and Lara Sousa Franco, sent out a chilling message to their title rivals – Barking & Dagenham mean business!

Just forty-five seconds were on the clock when Freeman picked out Matabaro in a central position, eighteen yards out. By the forty-sixth, the ball was buried into the bottom corner and Barking & Dagenham were on their way.

Delicious

On six minutes, the lead was doubled. This time, Mia Green won possession in the final third and glanced up to find Matabaro poised. A delicious ball into space allowed the Roding hitwoman to dart clear, rounding the keeper before finishing with her left.

Moments later, the captain got in on the action. From the left-hand side of the back three, Musa-Onyeka swept up a clearance in her own half. With space to run into, she then led the charge, evading one, two, three tackles en route to the penalty area, dribbling with pace, precision and power before stabbing home for her third of the season.

And by ten minutes, the game as a contest was all but over when a goal-mouth scramble saw Walker and Sousa Franco both denied, before the latter gained the final, crucial touch to extend the lead.

A raft of changes to the Barking & Dagenham line-up followed, with five substitutions by the fifteen-minute mark. However, any Tower Hamlets’ hope of a drop in quality was destroyed as the second wave continued where the first had left off.

Rewarded

Buoyed by her first district goal in the previous game, Taylor’s enthusiasm rewarded her a second as she charged down the goalkeeper’s clearance to deflect the ball into the vacant goal for 5-0.

And the ever-consistent Walker earned reward for a typically dogged first-half display, robbing the visiting defence of the ball, and driving home to send the hosts into half-time in style.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, Barking & Dagenham continued to press for more, but some of the urgency and rhythm of the opening exchanges had dropped. Tower Hamlets were alert to the shift and began to ask questions of the home side’s rearguard.

For the most part, Barking & Dagenham came up with the answers; however, the visitors deservedly clawed one back following a corner that dropped into the box, reacting first to convert from close range.

Fury

Poking a sleeping dragon isn’t a wise thing to do, however.

And the fire-breath red wave resumed its fury.

First, a ball down the right channel looked to be travelling to Dimitrova in a clearly offside position. The flag duly went up and the visiting defence relaxed.

However, Dimitrova backed off, allowing the industrious Charlotte Bryant to chase down the ball instead, sprinting down the right wing from legal ground. Offside trap sprung, no whistle followed as Bryant cut the ball back to her waiting counterpart in front of goal. Dimitrova duly finished amidst the confusion and the six-goal cushion was back in place.

Not for long though.

The reintroduction of Matabaro prompted the next one, a twenty-fourth of the season capping off a typically direct thrust down the centre. And Dimitrova’s tricky feet danced their way through for two more shortly after – both girls completing their second hat-tricks in as many games.

Denouement

Freeman thought it looked like fun, waltzing her own way through a series of challenges from near half-way to the six-yard box before slotting home. And, when her in-swinging corner was deflected over the line, she wheeled away to celebrate her fifth of the campaign.

The denouement arrived with a couple of minutes to go. Matabaro popped up on the right flank, dashing clear and sending over a cross which seemed to be heading harmlessly into the keeper’s grasp. Instead though, Taylor popped up out of nowhere, flinging an outstretched boot across her bows, to bravely poach another.

The result sees Barking & Dagenham jointly top London Girls’ League Group B, alongside St Albans, Those two teams, plus one from Hackney and Tower Hamlets will progress to play the three qualifiers from Group A. Three wins will guarantee the title for an unprecedented fourth successive campaign.

Barking & Dagenham: Amaya Amaning (Warren), Pearl Brown (Rush Green), Charlotte Bryant (Roding), Elizabeth Dimitrova (James Cambell), Zoe Freeman (Rush Green), Kadie Gibbs (James Cambell), Mia Green (Southwood), Aysia Matabaro (Roding), Chioma Musa-Onyeka (St Peter’s), Lara Sousa Franco (St Peter’s), Erin Taylor (The Leys), Honey Thomas (James Cambell), Hazel Walker (Parsloes), Kornelija Klimaviciute (Parsloes)