Margate (Home) 8-0 SE Counties Lge match report

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TonyDart
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Margate (Home) 8-0 SE Counties Lge match report

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Dartford 8 Margate 0 - South East Counties Women’s Football League
Sunday 8th January 2023 at Princes Park 3G
Weather: Drenching wet and cold
Dartford Manager: Rhys Terry, Asst. coach George Kingdon
Dartford Team Stevie-Marie Reece, Kim Green, Chloe Hall, Alex Fagan, Kirsty Cameron, Emily Woodhouse,
Georgia Culpitt, Erin Coughlan, Alex Foulds, Lizzie Nugent, Aimee Ascott
Subs: Amy Brooks, Lulu Bullen, Robyn Smitherman, Teodora Dimova and Brittani Rumble all came on during the second half.

With Annie White being called up for first team duty (although as it transpired their match with Millwall Lionesses was postponed), Alex Fagan played alongside Chloe Hall in the centre of Darts’ defence and ably dealt with the Margate forward line, whilst Kim Green and Kirsty Cameron kept the ‘Gate’ wingers fairly quiet. This enabled Darts to build their attacks from the midfield trio of Emily Woodhouse, Georgia Culpitt and Erin Coughlan who were beginning to link well with the front three of Alex Foulds, Lizzie Nugent and Aimee Ascott.

Margate, sitting third in the league table, from the start made life difficult for themselves by the weak kicking out from goal, often putting their fullbacks under immediate pressure from the eager Darts’ forwards. However, they survived for eight minutes
As early as the third minute, after a close-call on their goal when Lizzie was judged to be offside in the six-yard box from a Georgia Culpitt pass, Margate were slow to wake up to the power of the Dartford forward line

They dithered on the ball and in the 8th minute were punished. The ‘Gate’ left-back showed too much of the ball and Aimee Ascott robbed her and after a couple of strides that took her just inside the area, hit a beautiful shot that seemed to have ‘goal’ written all over it. The ball beat the goal-keeper but struck the underside of the bar near to the right-hand corner, and rebounded kindly in front of the goal-line for Lizzie Nugent to knock into an empty goal. This should surely go down as an ‘assist’ of the finest quality from Aimee.

Dartford controlled the first quarter-of-an-hour, but then Margate imposed themselves on the game from the next 15 minutes with some sustained pressure but without any clear-cut chances being created.
The weather deteriorated even more-so and a midfield tussle took over the game for much of the remaining minutes of the first half, Margate just having the edge on possession but still not creating anything worthwhile from their forward line.

Some of Dartford’s rhythm was lost and instead of playing the passing game, they resorted to long kicks upfield, by-passing the midfield. But credit must be given to the ‘Gate’ for their better midfield possession during, what turned out to be their best fifteen or so minutes of the entire game.
During this period, just on the rare occasion did Darts’ passing flow nicely and in one of these situations, Aimee sent a defence-splitting pass through to Lizzie who in turn laid off a neat pass to Georgia whose shot was accurate and true but the keeper made a good save.

For all their endeavours, ‘Gate’ never really troubled Stevie in goal and then on 32 minutes, Darts got their second. Emily teed up to shoot from 35 yards and produced a brilliant accurate shot which sailed over the keeper, straight down the middle, and into the net.
Margate forced their first corner of the match after 40 mins but was strongly headed away by Kim which reached Emily who burst forward but was momentarily blocked by two defenders. Alex Fagan regained possession and passed across to Chloe who played it out to the right for Kim. She played an accurate ball up to Georgia who fed Aimee who duly returned it to Georgia, the ball ended up at Alex’s feet who calmly slotted it home but disappointingly was disallowed for an offside call. This was much better from the Darts’, good clean crisp and accurate inter-passing.
Half-time came with the score 2-0 and a welcome break from the rain and the cold.

Still the rain came pouring down but it certainly didn’t dampen Darts’ hearts as once they gained a greater foothold with a third goal early on, and eventually more goals always looked likely to come.
Throughout the second half Darts made wholesale changes but first the third goal. Just three minutes from the re-start a very strong run into the penalty area on the right by Lizzie Nugent enabled her to shoot at goal. It was on target but the ‘keeper managed to parry the shot but only into the path of the ever-alert Alex Foulds.

Another chance fell to Darts but the keeper made an outstanding save from just under the bar, parrying a close-range effort from Georgia after good work by Aimee. Only a minute later and an accurate corner from Emily Woodhouse placed the ball close in on goal and was met by Lizzie who headed it into the net to register Darts’ fourth.

2022-23 v Margate 8-0.jpg
Lizzie Nugent was on hand to score again, which was Darts’ 5th and her own well-earned hat-trick, then in the 60th minute, Georgia was nicely placed to score Darts’ 6th of the afternoon.

Amy Brooks, LouLou Bullen, Robyn Smitherman, Teodora Dimova and Brittani Rumble all came on for some valuable game-time during the second half. The heart had gone out of Margate’s play and Aimee made a break through the ‘Gate’s back line and her shot was accurate but was straight at the keeper.

A bit of fluidity in the passing was lost with the wholesale changes but Darts still managed to get another couple of goals in the last 15 minutes to maintain their superior goal-difference in the league table.
Emily almost scored directly from a corner, her in-swinger was punched away bravely by the keeper under pressure at the near post but it wasn’t long before Darts added to their tally.

A real mix up with the Margate goalie rolling the ball out short to her left back, who tried to play it straight back to her, but Aimee nipped in, collected the ball and confidently scored Darts 7th goal in the 81st minute.
Darts’ eighth goal came a couple of minutes later, from a poor clearance from the goalkeeper which landed at Georgia’s feet who calmly lobbed it high over the keeper’s head and landed in an unattended goal.

Margate, I’m sure, would have been really disappointed with their second-half display, but no doubt it was the strength-in- depth of the Dartford squad that really didn’t give them a look in.
The final score of 8-0 didn’t flatter the Darts at all and was fully deserved for their determination to play the passing game even in the atrocious conditions. The goals came from Lizzie (3), Georgia (2), Aimee, Alex and Emily. Great stuff !

Report by Tony Brown. Photo by Joshua Bowles
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