Bristol Ladies Union 1st v AEK Boco Ladies Dev, 19th October 2025 (Women’s Challenge Cup)
Everyone was looking forward to a bright, sunny day, and an enjoyable cup match against a friendly opposition. What we got instead was grey skies, constant drizzle turning to rain, and opponents who may have got out of bed on the wrong side.
As the game got started it looked fairly even, although we were having a little trouble through the midfield as the girls tried to get used to the playing formation. A little tweak soon sorted that out and we got into our stride. We had some good spells of pressure, and so did they, but it was Boco who opened the score-line. As we kept our heads down and got on with our game, the ref repeatedly had to deal with incidents both on and off the pitch.
So we went into half-time down by one goal, but after our last match against Kingswood we definitely weren’t phased. The principle aim for the second half was to carry on with our plan, keep cool heads, and let the referee deal with any issues. Less than 3 minutes into the first half we had our equaliser, courtesy of Lila. In fact the next 20 minutes of the match were a showcase of excellent possession skills by BLU, as girls really found their rhythm.
Now, I’ll level with you… the timeline all gets a bit blurry around here because so many things were happening. Boco were shown a yellow for a sin bin offence, so we had a period of a 1 player advantage. Free kicks were awarded both ways. Another yellow was produced. There were a few late tackles from both teams. Words were exchanged. Basically the match was stop-start all the way up to the final whistle, and during the last few minutes we were quickly making changes to get some penalty takers onto the pitch.
So it was all down to penalties, and that was a whole feature-length drama itself. Evie put in the first, then Lila stepped up. Some say the sky’s the limit, but maybe not with penalties, and as Lila’s attempt flew over the bar she turned round and started walking back to the half way line, only to be called back by the referee. Boco’s keeper had come off her line, and we had another chance. Lila took a run up and hoofed the ball almost into near-Earth orbit! She turned around and began walking, but was called back for a third attempt. The keeper had been off her line again. 3rd time’s the charm, and Boco were understandably upset about it all.
In the end BLU won on penalties, and as we all walked off the pitch the drama was still playing out behind us. Magic Moment was awarded to Tia for having to face down 8 penalties, making at least one save. The Player of the Match was Scarlett for her excellent performance.
We move onto the second round.
