More often than not, end of season games with nothing riding on them can be quite tame affairs with player's minds more focussed on where they are going on holiday instead of the game in hand. What we had here was the total opposite, with no quarter asked or given. If you had just walked in and not seen the League table or knew nothing about ladies football you could quite easily have thought that the League title was up for grabs and not the honour of finishing in 4th place in the FAWSL. Up until a few weeks ago i hadn't planned to attend this game but i had such a whale of a time at the Arsenal away match a few weeks ago, that i decided to have another fun day out in the Capital. Again i used the train as it gave me the opportunity to sink a few beers after the game and hopefully catch one of the big European games in the evening.
Chelsea Ladies play their home matches at Wheatsheaf Park; home to Staines Town FC.
I have visited this ground once before when they took on the Imps in pre season a couple of years back. This was the first time that i had made the journey by public transport. While the journey takes a little longer than the one to Arsenal it is still simple enough to do. Once you get to Kings Cross simply get a zone one and two underground pass and jump on the Victoria Line to Vauxhall. From there you catch the train out to Staines from platform 6 with the journey taking about 40 minutes.(return ticket £9) When you leave the train station turn right and head down Gresham Road until you arrive at the T-junction with Laleham Road from here turn left and keep walking until you see the turning for Wheatsheaf Lane on the right. The ground is a short walk down the Lane on the right. The walk from the station takes under 15 minutes and although there are a couple of shops along the way there are no pubs which is always a bit of a let down.
Thankfully there is a clubhouse at the ground to satisfies the thirst of the weary traveller; which is situated just outside the ground. As you approach the turnstiles you will see a small door on the stand to your left. The clubhouse is upstairs in this building which over looks the seated area of the ground. The bar is quite smart and has a big screen showing which ever football game is on (Celtic v Hearts in this case). Given the quality of the game on the large screen i decided to watch the start of the player's warm up from the windows of the bar area.
Entrance today was £5 with a smart looking programme on sale for £2. The programme was very pleasing on the eye but there wasn't a huge amount to read in it. Not the worst in the League but not the best. The only boo boo i found was the pen pic of Sue Smith in the away players feature (she left the Imps for Doncaster in pre season). Also on sale were raffle tickets for £1 so i bagged one of those. I was one ticket out from winning £800 at the Nottingham Panthers on Friday night, so i figured my luck would change sooner or later (it didn't).
Next stop was the snap hut to check out the gourmet delights on offer. I went for the cheeseburger which came in at £2.60. I must admit that i have had better but it went down ok, didn't come back up and kept me going till i got to a kebab shop in London, so it did its job. The other hot food on the menu consisted of hotdogs and bacon cobs (or baps, or rolls, or sandwiches, whatever you want to call them!) Bacon is one of the few foods that i can't stand so that option was of no interest to me. There was also a decent range of hot drinks and chocolate which seemed to go down well with the punters.
As for the ground, it isn't too shabby. The large seated stand is very impressive and offers a great view of the action. I viewed most of the game from the opposite side of it standing, on the covered terrace.
This is the third time the clubs have locked horns this season. The first meeting here at Staines was a Continental Cup group match in which the Imps ran out 2-1 winners. The second match at Ashby Avenue saw the Imps win 2-0. After the game the Chelsea caretaker manager made a few remarks that maybe in hindsight he would have been better off not saying. It certainly fired a few of the Lincoln players up after the match. To refresh yourself about what went down that day click
here. Since that eventful day Emma Hayes has stepped into the Chelsea hotseat, and in doing so is the third Chelsea manager that the Lady Imps have come up against this season. Before kick off Chelsea sat in 5th place in the table with 17 points and a goal difference of -2. The Imps were a place back on 15 points and a goal difference of -3
There were no great surprises in the Lincoln line up; Nic in goal, a back four of Walton, Stoney, Bradley, and Sargeant, midfield consisted of Allen, Harris (Snr), Staniforth, and Barker, with Jess Clarke and Precious "goal machine" Hamilton up front. Lincoln only named three subs today those being Laura Allaway, Bonnie Harwood and Martha Harris. It was slightly concerning that we didn't have an out and out striker on the bench with Katie Rood being injured and Carla not making the trip.
Normally when given the choice i watch the action from behind the goal but today i chose to stand near the group of Lincoln fans behind the away team dugout. Before the game, Imps gaffer Glen Harris came over and had a chat to the fans and thanked us for or support which was a great gesture, and it was nice to have a brief chat with him.
Lincoln started brightly and got their passing game going right from the start. Pressuring Chelsea high up the pitch forced the home side into several mistakes at the back, and Hamilton and Clarke's pace was causing them problems. Chelsea did have the first effort on target but the long range effort was well gathered by Nic in the Lincoln goal. The game was a bit stop start in the first half, but neither side were really able to produce anything from the resulting free kicks. As often this season, Lincoln's main threat came from Jess Clarke running at the defence and taking players on. Both sides were looking good on the ball and to a large degree cancelling each other out. Lincoln did have a fright after half an hour when Nic's clearance was intercepted by Chelsea, but the Imps defended it well and the ball was soon back in the Lincoln keepers hands.
This led to a little spell of pressure from Chelsea with a couple of efforts flying wide of the posts and a couple of corners scrambled away by Lincoln. Then on 42 minutes Lincoln missed the best chance of the game when Precious Hamilton went on a great run, held off a defender, then rounded the keeper, sent the ball across the box for Jess Clarke to finish, but her shot was blocked on the line. It was fantastic defending from Chelsea but from a Lincoln point of view it should have been 1-0. Not to worry though because shortly after it was.
Lucy Stainforth collected the ball in the middle of the park and passed it forward to Remi Allen whose flick on was collected by Precious on the right hand side of the box, who then unleashed a low shot right into the far bottom corner of the Chelsea goal. At times in the first half the Imps' passing had been top notch and this goal was the icing on the cake.
At half time there was a penalty shoot out competition between Stamford the Lion and some of the Chelsea ball girls who were involved in Chelsea's "Right to Play scheme"; a charity which Chelsea support and which does a lot of great work around the world. I would love to tell you more about it, but unfortunately the PA system was playing up and i could only pick up about one in every three words being said, which is a shame because it is obviously a great cause. Chelsea raffled off a signed ladies shirt and ball so hopefully they made a few quid. I can confirm though that Stamford the Lion needs to brush up a bit on his goalkeeping.
After a close first half the game really roared into life in the second half, which had pretty much everything. On 49 minutes the Imps doubled the lead when a corner was flicked on from Casey Stoney, collected by Remi Allen who kept her composure, to blast the ball past Carly Telford and high into the Chelsea goal. Chelsea came roaring back but Nic got her timing spot on to gather the through ball right on the edge of the box before the Chelsea player could connect with it.
Then on 54 minutes Lincoln went further ahead. Lucy Staniforth made some space for herself in the box before firing home. Although a huge amount of credit goes to Lucy for the goal (and rightly so) this was a great team effort that involved several passes.
Again Chelsea came straight back at the Lady Imps An effort was fired in by Dunia Susi and looked to heading for the top corner. This drew a fantastic save from Nic Hobbs to keep the blues out. Nic has pulled of some fantastic saves this season and this one was right up there with the best of them. Maybe a second to her 'one on one' save away at Doncaster.
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| Hands up if you are the best keeper in the FAWSL! |
The home side did get on the score sheet in the 60th minute, when Helen Lander fired home a pinpoint effort from about 18 yards out right on the corner of the box, low into the far corner. It was a very tidy finish but Lincoln will be disappointed to have let the ball run across the box.
Then on 64 minutes the fireworks started. An incident happened on the far side between Sophie Walton and Chelsea's Dunia Susi. A challenge went in, and a face to face confrontation ensued, which lead to Sophie Walton getting a straight red card. What happened I don't know, simply because it was on the far side of the pitch. I know I sound like Arsene Wenger here but I genuinely couldn't see what happened. So i will have to wait till the highlight show. A Chelsea fan stood about two foot to my right (who knew her stuff) asked me if i had seen what had gone off so it wasn't just me who didn't have a clue what had gone on. A group of Chelsea fans to my left seemed to think "She laid one on her" which i highly doubt. Having seen most of the games this season, i would say that Sophie is one coolest players in the Imps squad and certainly not one to lose her rag over a few words. Hopefully it will all become clear and the ref will spit out the reason for brandishing the red.
As you can imagine the Lincoln bench weren't too impressed with the decision, and let their feelings be known. However this drew a dreadful response from a man in a tracksuit on the Chelsea bench, who i assume is their assistant manager, who took it upon himself to launch into a foul mouthed rant at the Imps bench; all of which could be heard by all around. Now i am no prude, in the industry that i work in you rarely hear a sentence that doesn't contain a swear word, but this wasn't the time or the place to hear such filth.
However the FAWSL and its clubs have had a huge push on getting families and young girls in particular to attend games, and this kind of outburst goes against everything that they have worked so hard to achieve. Had I have been the Father of one of the ball girls stood around the pitch i would certainly have questions for the bloke about his conduct and ability to control himself. I must point out that the Chelsea manager did her best to calm him down and seem embarrassed by his actions. Ultimately the referee is charged with controlling the players on the field of play and both management teams so the question has to be why he failed to act in this situation
On the field of play The Imps switched to a 4-4-1 with Jess Clarke breaking forward when possible. Chelsea did knock the ball around well, but the Imps kept their shape with Stoney and Bradley immense at the back. Plenty of balls were slung into the box but thankfully from a Lincoln viewpoint, many of them were straight down Nic's throat in goal. It would have been very easy for Lincoln to have felt hard done by and lose their rag, but thanks to great leadership form the bench and skipper Casey Stoney, this didn't happen. Lincoln did have a couple of chances on the break; the best being when Jess Clarke ran with the ball from deep inside her own half, beat three players, only for her effort to be hacked off the line for the second time in the afternoon.
Given all that had gone on during the second half, i was surprised that the 4th officials board only showed that 3 additional minutes were to be played (although pleasantly surprised it has to be said). In the last minute of this Chelsea added a second goal when the Lincoln defence tried to play offside and Dunia Susi looped a header over Nic into the goal.
Thankfully that was pretty much the last of the action and the Imps notched up their third away victory of the campaign. Thankfully tempers had cooled down and it was handshakes all round at the final whistle. A few of the other Imps fans and myself hung around after the final whistle as the girls did a brief warm down and listened to Glen's post match debrief and speech. Glen's speech was full of praise for the girls and rightly so. They had been up against all sorts of things in the second half and plenty of sides would have let the red mist get to them and not hold on for the win.
Did we deserve the win? Yes in my view we did. Some of the passing and movement from the side was first class and if i had to pick a player of the game it would be Jess Clarke. How she has managed to go through the whole campaign without scoring is anybody's guess. Watch her go and bag a couple now in the opening day of the 2013 season.
After the game i went back into central London to sink a few beers, watch some more football and reflect on the afternoon's action. This game had everything; goals, sendings off, good football (from both sides), and two teams desperate to win. I think its fair to say that next season's Lincoln v Chelsea games will have more spice in them than a Chicken Vindaloo from the
Mogal-E-Azam Curry house in Nottingham City centre (well worth the trip if you haven't tried it).
As this is the last match day blog of the season. (I plan to do a best of/ worst of the season review at some point next week) Its only right that i thank a few people. Firstly i must thank the CEO of the Lady Imps for letting me do this and publishing the write ups on the official site. Huge credit must also go to the management and players for giving me something to write about, and for the most part it has been a pleasure writing about this side. Although i love writing, my spelling and grammar is dreadful so huge thanks goes to my other half for acting to as my proof reader. A hat tip also to the people who have given me lifts to the games this year, and to all the people i have had the pleasure to meet at games along the way.
And a huge thank you to all of you, who took the time to read these entries and shared them on twitter, facebook etc. Alas now the season is over its back to blogging about 3rd rate Non League football for me. Never mind though, it will soon be March and the start of the 2013 FAWSL season!
Come on you Lady Imps!!!!
Great blog Adam
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