Wandsworth 0-12 Barking & Dagenham

THERESA EZEA AND HER Barking & Dagenham team-mates ran riot in the February drizzle to rack up a dozen goals without reply in another crushing win for the BAD Girls. The St Peter’s striker smashed a first-half brace before belting four more thunderous strikes to take her total for the season to sixteen, with nine in her last three games. Skipper Aaliyah Felix added two of her own, with Paloma Correia, Jo Mecvari, Simonette Johnson and Lily-Mae Fisher grabbing a goal apiece.

The visitors went ahead in the fifth minute. By then, Fisher, Ezea and Johnson had all forced saves from the home keeper and the pressure was mounting despite the game still being in its infancy.

Trap

Wandsworth couldn’t get out. Their insistence on short goal kicks played into the hands of the Barking & Dagenham high press. Deployed player-for-player, every outlet was plugged as Correia pounced to trigger the trap, shrugging the beleaguered defender out of possession and ruthlessly claiming the first catch of the day on her thirtieth district appearance.

The second came in similar fashion. Again, a short goal-kick was exposed – this time by the aggression of Ezea – with the ball charged down and into the path of Mecvari. The Southwood midfielder kept her cool to fire a left foot shot past the keeper and the lead was doubled.

A minute later, Felix slotted home her first goal since November, finding space on the edge of the box to arrow into the bottom corner.

And when Mecvari’s dangerous corner was converted by Ezea from close range, the contest was all over bar the scoring.

Ten minutes had passed… and Barking & Dagenham were – metaphorically, at least – home and dry.

Drenched

It didn’t take long to get the fifth. Again, an errant goal-kick went straight to Ezea, who showed her recent focus in front of goal to bury it beyond the drenched keeper.

At least a dozen other opportunities came and went, including a crossbar-rattler from Felix, but the only other successful strike in the first half came from Johnson. Winning possession twenty-five yards out, Barking & Dagenham’s talis-woman kept her cool to find a yard of space before sweeping high into the net from outside the penalty area.

The second half began with further spurned chances. Bella Hines sliced wide three minutes into the half, before both Ezea and Fisher hit the upright from the same goal-mouth scramble.

Hines, Fisher and Correia all drew fine saves.

But then Ezea decided it was time to stop messing about.

An emphatic finish from six yards out almost lifted the goal off the ground, before she added another in dynamic fashion, running from the half-way line, slaloming past two hapless defenders before burying the ball in the bottom corner.

A couple of minutes later, it was nine. Mecvari’s effort from distance skipped up off the surface, forcing the home keeper to fumble into Ezea’s path. Again, an emphatic finish was smashed into the roof of the net, registering Barking & Dagenham’s fiftieth goal of the season so far.

Smile

Ezea blasted a hole in the net for the fifty-first, the ball torpedoing into the trees beyond.

And Felix gained just reward for a hard-working display as she picked her spot for eleven-nil.

The biggest smile of the day however came via the twelfth. A kamikaze pass across the Wandsworth goal was picked up Fisher, who had been frustrated by a combination of blocks, saves, posts and last-ditch challenges from the opening minute. This time though she made no mistake, bundling the ball over the line to earn a much-deserved second of the season for the industrious Roding midfielder.

Victory all but confirms a place in the Super Six of the London Girls’ League for Barking & Dagenham, meaning three more games after Easter. The only way they would be denied a spot is if they were to lose to both remaining fixtures against Woking and Lewisham whilst St Albans won all four of their final games. That seems unlikely.

But anything can happen in district football and unhatched chickens should never be counted. Barking & Dagenham remain masters of their own fate though, and a win at home to Lewisham next week will remove any doubt.

Barking & Dagenham: Grace Attwood-Adams (The Leys), Jo Mecvari (Southwood), Paloma Correia (George Carey), Theresa Ezea (St Peter’s), Aaliyah Felix (Goresbrook), Lily-Mae Fisher (Roding), Bella Hines (Richard Alibon), Simonette Johnson (St Peter’s), Bella Yorke (Northbury), Whitney James (Rose Lane)