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