The Bow Belles take a Bow

Reichandt and Simic keep a close eye on Nobbs

Having your first game in the big time away to one of the big three was always going to be a big ask. 

Arsenal Women had the X Factor. 

West Ham United Women had the y factor. They were an unknown quantity. Their pre-season had showcased the new talent brought in from around the globe but would be little indication of how they would fare against the  serial cup winners.

In front of healthy crowd  West Ham Women answered any doubts about whether they could compete at this level, and on another day could have maybe got something from the game. No sign of stage fright and no-one fluffed their lines.

Matthew Beard conducts his players

From the off both teams were content just to pass the ball around, patiently looking for openings. Surprisingly Arsenal started using the long pass ( i.e. hoof ) to try to forge an opening for their lightning fast strikers, but these were easily fielded by centre backs Flaherty and Brooke Hendrix (officially the coolest name in women’s football). 

The first real chance fell to Arsenal. Beth Mead pounced on a rare loose ball and hurtled towards goal. As a photographer sometimes you have to try and predict what will happen next to get the money shot. I predicted that Becky Spencer was going to have to make a save, so I focussed on her. Meanwhile out of shot a superhuman last ditch challenge by Gilly Flaherty prevented Mead from pulling the trigger. 

As the match wore on Arenal became more confident and after a sustained game of bagatelle in the Hammer’s box the ball eventually fell to McCabe who drove it past the keeper from close range. 

McCabe scores her first.

Arsenal doubled their lead just before the break with a great move involving a back heel, a cross …and a flying header from Beth Mead. It was a goal to behold. I had to applaud the move even though I was watching with my claret and blue specs on.

Mead heads Arsenal's second

HT 2-0 

Matthew Beard must have utilised his half time twenty minutes well. Or he might have just said ‘Go for it!’ because West Ham came flying out of the blocks with a new belief and a new attacking threat in the second half. 

Leanne Kiernan terrorised the Arsenal full back with insane Usain-like pace and presented me with my next Nostradamus dilemma. 

Van Veenendaal is beaten by Visalli

Kiernan doing her best Roadrunner impersonation sped towards my direction  (I was just left of the goal) and I ‘guessed’ that she would go on to score a magnificent solo goal. So….. I aimed the lens at the Arsenal keeper. Nothing. I’d missed the fact that she had cut an intelligent ball back to Brianna Visalli, whose instinctive early shot from the edge of the area caught keeper Van Veenendaal unawares and all she could do (and me) was to watch the ball nestle into the back of the net. 

Game on!

Another scintillating run from Kiernan left the outrushing Van Veenendaal for dead and from what seemed (and proved to be) an impossible angle shot just wide. There were momentary looks of horror on the faces of the Arsenal defenders, and plenty of oohs and ahhhs from the West Ham fans. Fine margins. If the ball had ended up the other side of the post West Ham I feel could have gone on to win and I would have been waxing lyrically about a famous victory.

Kieran narrowly misses

Alas it didn’t ….and Arsenal managed to underline their win with a fine solo goal by McCabe. 
Becky Spencer pulled off a great one handed save to deny Evans in the closing stages ….and that was that. The spoils belonged to Arsenal, but West Ham Women can take comfort in the fact that they looked comfortable playing at this level and will have learned a lot about themselves as a team.

By the time the important business of the league starts next month manager Beard will have fine tuned his troops, and it looks like it’s a good time to be a Hammer ( surely I must get one prediction right….law of averages and all that…)

Becky Spencer - Not at fault for any of the goals. Solid performance, and played with a smile.

Kate Longhurst - Played out of her normal positition at right back. Brave performance, rushes in where angels fear to tread, but is no fool....

Gilly Flaherty - Captain’s performance, always seems to have time on the ball, an abundance of nous.

Brooke Hendrix - Perfect foil for Flaherty in defence. Fast, strong and good in the air.

Claire Rafferty - Her experience benefited the defence against very strong opposition.

Brianna Visalli - Gets better and better each game. Her height belies her strength and courage. Very skilful performance capped with a goal.

Julia Simic - Workwomanlike performance, excellent distribution and strong in the tackle.

Lucienne Reichardt - Industrious performance…. a thorn in the Arsenal women’s side.

Leanne Kiernan - Brilliant second half, all of the dangerous attacking situations stemmed from her whippet like runs.

Alisha Lehmann - Stylish performance, strong in the tackle and good link up play.

Jane Ross - Held the ball up well, had a few half chances but as a centre forward needed more service.

subs

Esmee De Graaf - Unlucky not to start, added extra quality to forward play after coming on.

Vyan Sampson - Received a warm reception from the home supporters, classy defender.

Ria Percival - Had her first brief appearance for the Hammers.

Matthew Beard may have assembled his team with ‘off the peg’ players but they look like they are ‘made to measure’ for West Ham Women…

Mad Dogs and Englishwomen…..

Charlton Women vs West Ham United Women PSF

West Ham Women's thirst for success

Mad Dogs and Englishwomen…..

The midday sun Sunday was hot hot hot. Too hot for football, although the prospect of seeing West Ham Women pitting their wits against last season’s WPL champions was very mouth watering. The merry-go-round summer of transfer shenanigans had bolstered Charlton’s squad with quality in the shape of Gemma Bryant and ex-Hammers Amber Stobbs and Hannah Wheeler, whilst new broom Matthew Beard had more or less built his West Ham team from scratch in a very short space of time with players from around the world. 

          However the battle of the titans I had imagined in my head on the way to the ground was brought down to earth by the state of the ‘stadium.’ Charlton women have become tenants of VCD Athletic FC. In my opinion it’s a massive step down in their surroundings since stepping up into the Championship. Obviously budget driven, I fear Charlton Women will struggle to play their passing game on what appeared to be a dreadful pitch surrounded by a tin shed for a stand and a housing estate. The long hot summer had turned the pitch into a rock hard uneven brown rectangle with markings so unclear I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d been made with invisible ink. 

The two teams deserved better. 

For me personally the day was to turn out to be a very social occasion. Forking out four quid was probably not the best start, but soon forgotten after a nice chinwag with ex-Hammer and ‘She Can Play’ founder Kat Clifton. 

It was to get better. I was setting up my camera equipment to catch some shots of the West Ham Women (warming up?) when manager Matthew Beard sauntered over to say hello… which was nice. Next up was Lionesses and West Ham superfan and massive ITK Mark Williams. He’s my mine of information, and we had a quick catch up. The feelgood summer vibes were everywhere. 

Becky Spencer feeling good

My mood soon shifted as I took my first tester photo to gauge the light levels on an extremely bright day. There was a warning. An error message. ‘No memory card inserted’. I’d forgotten to put a memory card in my camera. To all intents and purposes …..I had no film in my camera. The match was going to be starting in ten minutes. I was mortified. Thoughts whirled around my head. 

Do I tell anyone?

Shall I carry on …pretend to take photos… no-one will know.. (I did actually contemplate this)

I could just go and sit in the stand and pretend there’s too much light to get any good shots…

I could make out I’ve had a call and have to return home…

Maybe ask one of the other photographers if they have a spare…. no … that would be too embarrassing.

‘I turned to Mark. ‘Is there a Tesco near here?’  I confessed my predicament and the general consensus was that I should go and buy one. 

As luck would have it there was a PC World just down the road, and thirty minutes and £44 later (lighter)  I was back in the game. ‘It’s 2-0 to West Ham already!’ the chap on the turnstile exclaimed as he let me in for a second time. ‘The first one was scored after just ten seconds.’ Damn. 

Thus my reportage begins from the 23rd minute. 

The team - Becky Spencer Trialist  Brooke Hendrix, Gilly Flaherty, Claire Rafferty; Lucienne Reichardt, Brianna Visalli, Julia Simic,  Alisha Lehmann Jane Ross, Esmee De Graaf

subs - Anna Moorhouse, Kate Longhurst, Rosie Kmita, Vyan Sampson.

Jane Ross and Brianna Visalli had put West Ham Women two up within the first six minutes.

It seems that I had missed the excitement and the two teams were battling out a midfield battle, the hammers shading the skill and fitness stakes. Striker Leanne Kiernan missed the game through illness and her place up front was being taken by midfielder Esmee De Graaf who looked very comfortable in that position. She’s what they used to call a ‘utility player.’ (Maybe they still do…. but I haven’t heard that phrase since those Paul Madeley days)

The Hammers defence was looking as solid as a rock, Kit Graham and new signing Gemma Bryant  getting absolutely no joy at all, and when Bryant did get a rare whiff of the hammer’s goal she was upended (fairly) by not one, but two West Ham defenders. 

After the well earned water break, even though West Ham had quite a few fair haired players in their team, the first ‘blonde moment’ belonged to Charlton’s international keeper Katie Startup ….her left foot seemed to turn into a banana and her parabolic clearance fell perfectly for Swiss Miss Alisha Lehmann who passed the ball into an empty net. I’m pretty sure the powerfully elegant Lehmann will be turning heads as well as defences when the WSL season starts.

Alisha's foot (far left) scores number 3

A minute later West Ham Women won a free kick which was floated into the box. Esmee De Graaf generated immense power with her header, and keeper Startup could only watch as the ball flew into the net.

Esmee De Graaf heads number 4

With a half time score of 4-0 the game was over as a contest. GM Karen Ray came over at the break and answered a few of my footy questions and gave me an insight to life in the WSL and bicycles. After all the comings and goings it was also  good to hear that the gifted Kelly Wealthall is still in the clubs future plans.

And so to the second half. Not much to report, as the searing heat took hold. Becky Spencer made a terrific save from a Kit Graham free kick. Gemma Bryant was lucky not to see red when she saw red and wildly kicked out in frustration at a hammer’s defender. Kate Longhurst came on and is now officially a Hammer. It’s a long time since there was a talented Hurst at West Ham ( Swindlehurst obviously doesn’t count) and she could prove to be a masterstroke signing. We got to get our first look at Julia Simic who did the hard unfussy work in midfield with a smile.

And lastly it was a pleasure to see Hannah Wheeler enter the field of play for Charlton. She was the last survivor from my first ever West Ham Ladies match in 2015. She like many of the other players from last years successful team, was unfortunate to miss out on the WSL adventure but has still moved up a division in class into the Championship. 

The referee blew his whistle after manager Matthew Beard had informed him there had been 52 minutes played in the second half. And that was it. The penultimate chance to fashion a title chasing side before joining the ‘big boys.’ (The ‘big boys’ doesn’t really translate as say ‘man on’ in the women’s game ..but big girls sounded even worse).

There was one last brief encounter to come. Leanne Mabey was my Celia Johnson and gave me an interesting take on her position in Women’s football. After enquiring about her future plans, she told me that she was enjoying not having to get up early to go running and was looking forward to her holidays. After two successful seasons with both Tottenham and West Ham it was maybe time to go easy on her 30 year old body and dodgy knee (her words). I wished her well and I’m sure we’ll see her on a pitch sometime soon.

Next up Lewes Women at the ‘Pan

All smiles at the final whistle

  

The Dawn of West Ham United Women

Photo Avit

¡Viva la Revolución!

West Ham United Women nee Ladies kicked off their pre-season friendly itinerary with a trip to The Hive to face London Bees. There was a buzz of anticipation about the place as the crowd, roughly the same number as a WHUW home game, gathered to see history being made. 

A maiden voyage of sorts  ….. on the ship of Theseus. 

Not one of the fresh faced eager players from last season’s August team photograph had survived the move from the third floor to the penthouse suite of the WSL, but this was still West Ham Ladies. It doesn’t matter who wears the claret and blue, team is everything. 

     Romantics will hark on about past glories and their inglorious past, get dewy eyed about playing over a park with one lino and skidding in dog’s muck or maybe reminisce over their recyclable football shirts (either they had a lot of players called Headley or the Headley shirt was a very popular size).

  The purists would say they would like to see a team evolve and develop by winning titles and proving themselves to be the best in their division.

  However West Ham United Women’s speedy boarding pass had negated the need for any of that and now the teetered on the edge of possibly their most historic/successful season ever in the WSL. 

 As a fan with an uncanny inability to retain players names, I had my work cut out. The starting eleven had eleven new players in it. Ten plus a trialist. The trialists are never named although apparently anyone who knows anything about women’s football would easily recognise West Ham’s trialist number 6. 

I didn’t. 

Unlike the glut of bizarre trying to be trendy promo videos by media teams who’ve just discovered Final Cut Pro X’s special effects menu that have been doing the rounds over the past few weeks the two teams sauntered onto the pitch like everyday people out for an afternoon stroll. No razzmatazz, no fanfares. Just quiet confidence. 

  I tried to imagine what new manager Matthew Beard and his generals would hope for or glean from this first run out. No injuries would be first on my list. Attitude, temperament and communication perhaps. It’s always nice to win but the result would be superfluous. There was a squad of sixteen players. If that was the full squad then their training matches would have only been 8 a side at the most. 

Starting IX   13 Anna Moorhouse              subs  1 Becky Spencer

                     3  Erin Simon                                 2 Another mystery player          

                     4  Brooke Hendrix                         10 Julia Simic

                     5  Gilly Flaherty                             14 Vyan Sampson

                    11 Claire Rafferty                           16 Rosie Kmita

                    18 Lucienne Reichhardt

                    17 Esme de Graaf

                     6  Mystery player (maybe Katie Longhurst but don’t quote me)

                     8  Leanne Kiernan

                    15 Brianna Visalli

                     9  Jane Ross

To almost quote the over used cliche, the match was a game of three halves. Three thirty minute halves to be precise. The first belonging to the Bees as they showed their Championship pedigree and inflicted the first West Ham Women’s goal conceded, a beautiful finish from Taylor OLeary, and some excellent silky skills from their No.4 (sorry ..don’t know name)

The second belonged to the Hammers as Leanne Kiernan showed that she has an eye for goal, slotting in West Ham Women’s equaliser past the Bees' keeper from close range.

The third half belonged to the heat as play slowed, which suited West Ham better and they began to find their WSL  passing range and rhythm. 

Matthew Beard

A solid performance from the West Ham defence where Hendrix was the ball winner and  Flaherty mopped up and spread the ball. Not too much created up front but signs that once they acquire a better understanding of each other the goals will come. A special mention for Brianna who caught the eye and gave an all action performance in very difficult conditions.

Player x

It was also refreshing to see manager Beard kicking every ball and feeling every tackle from the sidelines, whilst barking orders to his players in no uncertain terms with a couple of ‘Oi ref!s’ thrown in for good measure….

                                                                           

Sunday 29th July West Ham United Women vs  Behind Closed Doors United…… COYWI

          

     

West Ham Ladies History Made and the Women's Super League

West Ham Ladies made club history on Sunday by winning their first national trophy since forming 26 years ago, the FA  WPL Plate, and also took another giant stride closer to seducing the FA into accepting their bid for WSL status. The representatives from the FAWPL may have been impressed with the skill, fitness, professionalism and work rate of the Hammer’s Ladies, but as the criteria for exclusive membership to the newly formed league includes none of these attributes, they will still have been wringing their hands at the excellent media coverage they offered and the money that would be available to be injected into their league. . 

This was indeed the West Ham Ladies Show.

To be fair the West Ham United media team put the FA to shame on covering the game, a game the FAWPL deemed to play in a stadium, which according to my unresponsive satnav, was in the middle of fucking nowhere, had goal posts leaning back at a 75 degree angle and pitch that had been played on just two hours previous. They had dressed the stadium up with a few banners screwed to the hoardings, a plastic patio table to present the medals from and a kind of archway to enhance the photographs that were to be taken. The FAWPL own media coverage looked non existent. There was a bloke getting in the way of my camera taking photos of the presentation with an iPhone but he could have been with the Luton Ladies contingent. Other than that, nothing. Apart from myself. 

It was a final and on the way up the M1 I was wondering whether I would have a good enough vantage position to take photos without blocking anyone’s view. I needn’t have worried, I had both ends and the stand opposite to the grandstand to myself. Tell a lie…. there were three other spectators and six ball girls as well, but almost to myself. 

Who cares? 

The players, the club and their friends and families care…. but who else? 

The FAWPL? The press? The fans? 

I was debating whether to do write up of the match because of work commitments I’m a bit late to the party. I searched the internet and there was no mention of the game except from West Ham Ladies media. No pictures, no reports. 

Who does care? …. apart from Danny Dyer …

Karren must've had a better offer

West Ham United had provided the Ladies with two highly experienced photographers, as well as entrusting them with their 4K video equipment instead of the handy cam they usually have to make do with, which wasn’t ideal but a big step up from filming the game with the training pitch security cameras. They’d also laid on a luxury coach for travelling supporters (friends and family), and even MD Jack Sullivan had endeavoured to make the laborious journey up there. There was no sign of the bloke with the helicopter though, or Karren Brady and Michail Antonio who were supposed to be ambassadors for the Ladies team, but had only managed to see one game so far between them. In fact on the day of West Ham Ladies last final, the Baroness was tweeting trying to get a freebie from BA after her luggage was mislaid, instead of wishing the girls good luck.

  Other notable absentees were the rest of the West Ham Ladies  (Dev) squad  who didn’t have a game that day, (Steph Bent and Mollie Kmita were the only ones that made the trip) Molly Clark who had scored the winner in the Women’s League Cup Final and medal winner new signing Vyan Sampson. 

The 100 strong crowd, mostly West Ham supporters by the sound of it, applauded the teams as they lined up for the traditional pomp and circumstance of a cup final. It’s a real shame that West Ham didn’t bring their own PA system as well, as we tried to decipher the unintelligible garble from the stadium announcer which had more to do with his poor equipment rather than his thick brummy accent. Apologising profusely beforehand for any mispronunciations, he read out the team sheets, although he could have been announcing train cancellations for all that we knew. I half expected him to say “Mind the gap.” But he had saved his ‘piece de resistance until last when he requested that ‘Everybody be upstanding for the National Anthem.’  For an occasion that had all of the atmosphere of a school sports day, it seemed a little bit over the top, but a slice of patriotism now and again can’t hurt, I thought. Just as we were puffing out our chests, God save the Queen crackled out of the speakers like someone trying to tune in an old valve radio to listen to Norman Collier. It painfully emitted about four bars, before a large buzzing sound heralded it’s premature conclusion, much to the amusement of the whole congregation. ‘Sorry about that…. I’m not used to the new equipment,’ crackled his apology……. well I think that’s what he said.

The players didn’t care about any of that. Both teams were fully focussed on the job in hand. Luton ladies had a game plan, their formation was a mirror image of West Ham’s, like for like. And it worked. For 25 minutes they had frustrated the Hammer’s with their dogged determination and smart goalkeeping from Kezia Hassal. Enter Amber Stobbs with her almost predictable ‘bend it like Beckham’ volley into the top corner of the net to break the hearts of Luton’s finest. Before they had time to regroup Kelly Wealthall had taken advantage of some sloppy defending and pounced to net West Ham Ladies second. Luton Ladies were playing with one up front and were finding it hard to get anywhere near Connatser's goal, as were most teams  these days.

After the break Zoepfl took just 2 minutes to score West Ham’s third, striding through the Luton defence before unleashing a low shot past keeper Hassal. Luton did manage to threaten the West Ham goal on occasions, mainly from corners but were no match for the WPL side. Hassal made a string of saves that would earn her player of the game, the best one being a one handed tip over from a normally unstoppable Stobbs thunderbolt. Captain Kmita scored a fourth after Hassal had rushed out of her area to tackle Wealthall, the ball fell kindly to Rosie who took two touches and then curled the ball over a defender and into the empty net. It was the goal of the game. In the dying embers of the game the tiring Luton defence allowed Zoepfl too much space and she bagged her second of the match. Not the perfect ten performance of the previous week against QPR, but comprehensive 5-0 victory, another trophy, and another feather in their peacock tail, in front of the watching eyes of the FAWPL. 

Wheeler scores the Hammer's first                

The following week saw the home demolition of Portsmouth Ladies. Pompey are no slouches and they are the only team in the league this year that actually played some football in the WHL half. In fact if they had scored the penalty they were awarded at 5-1 they could have made things very uncomfortable for the Hammers. However Hammer’s keeper Cara Connatser pulled off an incredible save, tipping the ball onto the post to deny them.

   Even though the game was played in a mini heatwave the West Ham Ladies closing down of the opposition showed no signs of relenting, a testament to their training and fitness. Rosie Kmita scored another sublime goal to add to her one against Luton, and Jasmine Auguste scored with a brave header….. her first for the club, followed by an Arnie-esque celebration which could probably use a bit more work. The 7-1 scoreline didn’t flatter the Ladies at all…. they are on fire.

Portsmouth...out for the count

There were two landmark occasions to follow during this week. The Ladies team were invited to the West Ham United awards night for the first time and even had their own player award which went to Ellie Zoepfl, the graceful American player who has a great season and has chipped in with some excellent goals. 

The other landmark occasion is the partnership with Barking Abbey School, to provide extra expertise training for 16-18year olds which could lead to further higher education with the UEL, another West Ham Ladies partner. Keith Boanas, who I tipped to be West Ham Ladies new manager back in December before General Manager Ray gave herself the job, is the Barking Abbey head coach. He would be a good fit for the ambitious Hammers as he left his post last year  at Watford Ladies because of their total lack of ambition. 

   The strange thing about the partnership is the fact that last summer West Ham Ladies decided that they didn’t want a 16-18 year old team and made the previous season’s unbeaten quadruple winning girls team have trials to keep their place at the club. Only two players survived the cull, Kelly Wealthall and Andreya Ezekiel-Meade (now with Tottenham), the rest were released as they were told they were not good enough even for the development squad. The coaches of the rejected players kept faith in them and resigned, and reformed under the banner of Barking Abbey Girls U18s, who had a very successful season.  

 So just a year after destroying the academy that should have been the future of West Ham Ladies, Ray has announced “We are very excited about this partnership and by the prospect of opening a flourishing and successful Academy.”  

This massive backtrack by Ray will hopefully let the girls get a chance to prove her wrong and get another bite of the cherry. The arrangement would also conveniently facilitate a smooth transition for experienced coach Boanas to take the reins, if West Ham Ladies succeed in their application to the WSL. 

WHL have just two more dances,one against Lewes, then the big show stopper versus QPR before the FA's decision is made.

 Personally I think it's in the bag

COYI

West Ham Ladies Run Rings Around QPR Ladies

I’d never been to QPR Ladies ground before. I knew it was going to be a schlep because I knew it was near Heathrow airport, the furthest point I can go on the M25 from home before coming back on myself. I had dropped my son off there only the day before, and now here I was back on the most boring congested sixty mile stretch of the M25 (ever) but with the added inconvenience of rain and traffic jams. 

  This was the West Ham Ladies league match sandwiched between two cup finals. QPRL were touting the game as a chance for youngsters to get inspired. To play football. They tweeted…

‘#QPRLFC are hoping to inspire the next generation, with hundreds of local girls expected for Sunday's @FA_WPL fixture with @westhamladies!

The teeming rain was was annoying. The traffic was making me late. Hundreds of school children? I’ve nothing against children (I used to be one) but in my experience, children at football matches tend to lose interest pretty quickly and end up being impatient,restless or bored, or all three. 

‘Hundreds?’  I pondered.

The car park was chock-a. A row of coaches seemed to be taking up a lot of the spaces. Hundreds of school children…. 

The club house was more modern than I had imagined, but after taking one tentative step inside and enquiring as to the whereabouts of the pitch I was directed back in the direction I had just come from. And there it was. Nestled into a small gap between the 21st century fencing was something that Arthur Negus would have given the once over, a rickety old green turnstile. It looked like a portal to the 1930’s, or platform nine and three quarters.  I half expected to walk through and see fans sporting rosettes, waving rattles at Stanley Matthews and shouting things like ‘Good play old boy’ and ‘Spiffing’. £2 later/lighter I was in the ground, still convinced it was the 1930’s. There was nothing grand about the grandstand, it looked like an old cow shed that the cows had abandoned in search of more salubrious surroundings. There were three other stands which were not even up to cow shed standards. Welcome to the third tier of women’s football, I thought. Bizarrely, next to the ‘not so’ grandstand was the juxtaposition of some palm trees, planted to cheer the place up a bit no doubt. It wasn’t working. 

   The promise of hundreds of school children was broken, there were a few, 10-20 maybe. the car park occupants must have been going somewhere else. Not here. The official attendance was 160 which isn’t bad for a WPL match, especially in the pouring rain. And on a Sunday. I’ve always thought that 2.00pm on a Sunday was a naff kick off time. Saturday football is played in the afternoon and Sunday football is played in the morning. It’s the law….. or at least it should be. 

West Ham Ladies were hoping to continue on their great unbeaten run against second bottom in the league QPRL, who had only won two games all season, both against serial losers Swindon Town Ladies. The WHUL team was unchanged from the one that had won the good move.co.uk Isthmian Bostik Women’s League cup on Wednesday, the only difference being Rosie Kmita was now wearing the captain’s arm band instead of Amber Stobbs who was keeping it warm for Amy Cooper, who hasn’t been seen since the game against Keynsham Town in early February. Medal winner Vyan Sampson was on the bench again, still yet to kick a ball in anger for the Hammers, as was Leanne Mabey and Dayna Chong. Having two central defenders on the bench seemed a curious decision, especially against one of the weakest teams in the league.

Kelly Wealthall

And still the rain came down. The whistle was blown and West Ham Ladies slipped straight into top gear, probing and pressing the QPRL defence. Predictably it was Amber Stobbs who broke the deadlock with one of her trademark booming shots from outside the area which the keeper could only parry into the roof of the net. It was closely followed by a bravely headed goal by Chantelle Mackie. She took to the near post at a corner kick and kept her eyes on the prize during the defensive melee. I think it was her first goal, and if it wasn’t,  it was the first goal I’d seen her score anyway. Mackie has developed into a real tough cookie. A clash of heads left her pole-axed on the floor, but she just dusted herself down and got on with it. QPRL were trying to weather the storm (as we all were) but fell foul to two more strikes from the prolific Kelly Wealthall and midfielder Ellie Zoepfl before half time was announced. 

The rain persisted. The second half was a master class given by West Ham Ladies in how to dominate a game, the animated energetic Rosie Kmita switching wings with Zoepfl to confuse the enemy, Amber Stobbs (my LOG) freed from her defensive duties to terrorise defenders, Kelly Wealthall keeping defenders busy and in the process helping herself to a hat trick, Andria Georgiou    and Molly Clark the enforcers breaking up play in midfield, whilst full backs Mackie and Auguste alternate between extinguishing any opposition threats by fair means or foul (literally) and providing width to WHUL attack. Mackie almost achieved the impossible feat of her scoring two in a match but her smart shot was saved at the near post. The 57th minute heralded the playing debut of new signing Vyan Sampson  coming on with Chong for Austin and Zoepfl. To be fair the comfortablest positions to play in WHUL team at the moment are central defence and goalkeeper purely because they are shielded so well by the rest of the team. Chong displayed her natural ability and was unlucky not to score after QPRL keeper made a point blank save.Sampson showed us all her WSL pedigree with some sumptuous control and passing, giving the manager a welcome selection headache to come.

Fittingly it was the stylish Georgiou who closed proceedings with torpedo of a shot from the edge of the area. 

10-0. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Two things I overheard on the pitch summed up the winning mentality of WHUL. 

A QPRL defender bemoan ‘This is embarrassing.’

‘ Hannah…I need the ball quicker!’  Amber Stobbs berating Wheeler for not releasing the ball sooner. At the time they had an 8-0 lead.

As an observation in this game and Wednesday’s final, bad fouls were punished not by cards, but by having to apologise to the injured party. I can’t see it catching on in the men’s game.

And so to Sunday’s FA plate final against Luton Town Ladies who had quite prosperous Sunday themselves beating Haringey Borough Women 14-0. Natasha Fensome scored five and Jess Mckay scored four for the Hatters, so maybe West Ham Ladies should keep a close eye on them, but in my opinion the Hammers will be too strong for the team that play in the 4th tier of the Women’s pyramid and should pick up their second trophy in the space of ten days. The only selection problem I can see West Ham having is who to reward with a place on the bench.

I’m sticking my neck out and going for a 5-0 to the Hammers.

(first published 12/4/2018 on Hammers Chat)