Winchcombe Town Ladies 1st v Bristol Ladies Union 1st, 11th October 2026.
A stressful morning for me as over the course of 2 hours I had 3 players contact me to tell me they’d have to pull out, mainly due to illness. It’s that time of year. Consequently we were down to 10 players for the match, which is not ideal. But we’ve been here before… last time we were short-handed we managed a 3-3 draw with Bradley Stoke, so we know we’ve got the tenacity to overcome the odds.
The game didn’t start well though. An early mistake gifted Winchcombe their first goal just after 2 minutes played. BLU recovered and held on for the next 22 minutes, albeit under a lot of pressure. We struggled to get out of our own half, and conceded a few corners which led to the next goal from Winchcombe. We had some positive moments, and had a few chances as the game progressed, but we conceded another 2 goals before the half time whistle.
4 goals down and we had to make a decision as a team: do we dig in and try to minimise the damage, or do we risk it and go for broke? In the end we decided to do a bit of both. Rather than having a striker out on her own, we’d bring in a CDM which would allow the midfield to push up a bit further. We also resolved to press a lot harder and give Winchcombe as little room on the ball as possible, and it worked! Sure, it was obviously going to be a gruelling second half, especially against a side who had a full compliment of subs to work with, but BLU pushed them back and dominated play for the next 45 minutes. Again we had a few chances, making the goalkeeper work for it, and we also had to deal with a few nervous moments in our own penalty area, but at 88 minutes Rosie got in a shot from the left hand side, right across the keeper, and Izzy tapped it in to be absolutely sure. A consolation goal, but well deserved after all the monumental work put in.
So the match ended 4-1. Not the result we would have wanted, but that second half performance was a perfect demonstration of the never-give-up attitude of this team. Our Player of the Match was Rosie, who made her BLU 1st debut after recovering from a broken foot, and was doing her utmost to make up for our missing player. The Magic Moment came from Connie, who was in a barging battle with Winchcombe’s left winger, eventually coming up with the ball and leaving her opponent sprawling on the ground.
