Ladies crash on Saturday

by Mike Haymonds

SLOUGH Ladies experienced a weekend of mixed fortunes when a win and a loss against lowly placed teams left them as they began – in third place and still on course for a play-off berth.

After losing 4-2 to Olton they recovered to beat Clifton 3-2. Missing four players – Natalie Bell, Louise Bevan, Alex Scott and Harriet Cunningham for Saturday’s game at Olton – they suffered a further blow before the match. Slough No 2 goalkeeper Kate Filochowski and teenager Katie Shanahan were involved in a motorway accident on the way to Birmingham.

Shanahan made it to the venue and, despite still being shaken, she managed to open her scoring account for the season. Slough had the better opening half on a bouncy pitch but the hosts scored first in the 26th minute with a well-taken strike by former international Lucilla Wright. Slough equalised two minutes later from their first penalty corner when Chloe Strong slapped the ball to the far post for Nicola White to steer it home.

Slough skipper Strong said: “We should have been ahead at half-time as we had created some good chances but the ball did not fall for us.”
Three minutes after the break Shanahan netted a right-wing cross but in the 44th minute confusion in the Slough defence during a substitution situation gave Wright the opportunity for her second goal. Two further Olton goals in the 53rd and 59th minutes from Rachel Clift and Naomi James, the second from a double-switched corner, fired home from wide, ended Slough’s hopes of a fight-back.

SLOUGH (v Olton): Duggan, Nicholson, Strong, Coulson, Bowe, White, Greenham, Ball, Archer, Penny, Ilkei. Sub: Shanahan.