Spurs Women were denied their first league win of the season in the second annual Women’s Football Weekend, after late drama against Bristol City resulted in a 2-2 draw on Saturday (14 November) at Twerton Park.
Siri Worm’s stunning free-kick cancelled out Chloe Logarzo’s penalty in the first half, before Ashleigh Neville’s second goal in as many games gave us the advantage in Bath after the break, but after going down to 10 players following Rianna Dean’s red card, Ebony Salmon equalised for the hosts in stoppage-time.
After coming off the bench to make her debut in our 1-1 draw with Reading last weekend, Karen Hills and Juan Amoros handed Alex Morgan her first start for the Club.
Lucia Leon and Hannah Godfrey returned to the starting line-up, while Academy player Esther Morgan, who was involved in first team training this week, was named on the bench.
Possession was shared during a tight opening 15 minutes, with neither side able to capitalise from several corners.
Alanna Kennedy tested Sophie Baggaley after 22 minutes when the Australian international picked up the ball in the opposition territory before stinging the Bristol goalkeeper’s palms with a rifling shot from long-range.
The hosts broke the deadlock eight minutes before the interval from 12 yards - Yana Daniels drew a foul in our penalty area before Logarzo stepped up to convert the resulting spot-kick, sending her right-footed strike past Becky Spencer.
We didn’t have to wait long for our equaliser which came five minutes later thanks to an outstanding free-kick from Worm, who curled her left-footed effort from a tight angle on the edge of Bristol’s box into the top far corner.
We started the second half on the front foot, winning four corners in quick succession but the hosts stood firm.
On the hour mark, Leon latched onto Worm’s outswinging corner from the left, but her headed effort flew just over the crossbar.
Our momentum continued to grow, and we pulled ahead in the 64th minute. Scorer turned provider when Worm whipped in a free-kick from the left onto Neville’s head, who flicked the ball home to score in back-to-back games.
We battled for the final 13 minutes, plus a lengthy period of added time, with 10 players on the pitch, as second-half substitute Dean was dismissed by referee Lisa Benn following a late challenge on Baggaley.
With 84 minutes played, Worm was unlucky to not get her second when her free-kick crashed off the crossbar and down onto the goal-line. Baggaley kept the ball out by inches following a short goal-mouth scramble to deny us a third.
Bristol’s equaliser came two minutes into stoppage time, when Salmon pounced onto Jemma Purfield’s long pass and took a shot, which deflected off Spencer as it sailed into the net.
Two minutes later, Kennedy saw her header from Worm’s free-kick go agonisingly close as it fell just wide of the bottom left corner – the last chance of the game.
We return to action on Wednesday (18 November) when we face north London rivals Arsenal at Meadow Park in Group B of the Continental League Cup.
Head Coach Juan said: "I think when we went down to 10 players for 20 minutes and then we conceded in the 92nd minute from a long ball... we should have killed the game before. We could have had a goal that goes in from the free-kick, even when we go down to 10. I have to say the girls really fought hard. The result, people are not very happy with, but that’s football. We worked really hard from set-pieces. I’m very glad for Siri and also for Ashleigh, and Siri getting the assist. We do extremely well from offensive set-pieces. After the penalty we did better, we were dominating possession. In the second half we played really well, we were dominating until we went down to 10 players - we were definitely on top. I’m really gutted for the girls."
Juan was pleased with Alex Morgan's influence on her first start for the club before she was withdrawn at half-time in a planned change: "With Alex, it’s using the right steps to make sure she keeps growing and gets better and better every week and that we manage her workload so that things can go well," he explained. "She did really well, she caused them problems. I think there was a corner that got taken off her head, which would have probably been her first goal in a Spurs shirt. But again, we’re very happy with her and she’s doing great for the team, so we’re very pleased that she got a little bit more playing time today."
