Cobblers Ladies made the relatively short journey to Cambridge and although the performance was not totally convincing, it was enough to come away with all three points.

The positives from the game were some strong individual performances in the absence of some of the senior players, notably Steph Gale who capped a hardworking performance with a goal in either half.

Janine Holland had been consistently strong in both of the opening games and again was always a handful and was credited with the second goal even though it took a wicked deflection to deceive the City keeper to double the score-line.

The cobblers defence was re-shuffled after last weeks disappointing performance and strengthened by the switch from midfield of Lisa Porter and Lyndsey Jelley who both used their experience to keep the City strike force at bay. City did have their fair share of chances but in the Cobblers goal was Sophie Capell, making a very impressive goalkeeping debut with a string of excellent saves, assured handling and strong goal kicking, which was instrumental in improving confidence throughout the team.

With a two-goal cushion taken into the second half, Cobblers relaxed a little and started to play some good football. The Cobblers third goal came after another strong run from Janine which led to a corner and a series of close range shots were cleared with the ball eventually falling to Laura Sutherland. Laura fired a low shot through the crowded penalty box and surprised the City keeper who allowed the ball to slip through her fingers and roll tamely into the net.

City did pull a goal back with ten minutes left but again this was mainly due to some indecisive defending but credit to the City strikers who pressured the Cobblers back line into the mistakes.

The Cobblers responded well to the goal and almost immediately responded with a well worked move starting with Lucy Batemans strong challenge on the edge of her own area. With a sweet left foot pass she found Janine on the wing who released Steph with a perfectly weighted pass which allowed her to finish the move by rounding the keeper and finishing with style.

So with the first win in the bag and a welcome boost to confidence levels, it will be interesting to see how the ladies fair next week against another new team to the league in AFC Wimbledon.

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