Blues Lose at The Valley

 

Photo from @BCFCWomen

After a break in fixtures in respect of the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, The Blues were back in action away to Charlton. A few of us managed to make the trip down to The Valley to cheer The Blues on, unable to wait any longer to see the team back on the pitch. After a pre-match chat with Blues manager Darren Carter and a couple of selfies, we were buzzing for the game to begin.

A few injuries forced some changes to the team that beat Sunderland 4-0. Midfielder Mollie Green found herself in defence and the worst kept secret ever, new signing Charlie Escourt made her Blues debut in midfield. The Blues applied pressure from kick-off and came close in the first two minutes of the game when Charlie Devlin took the ball into the Charlton penalty area and took a shot that was well-saved by Sian Rogers in the Charlton net. The missed chance would unfortunately come back to bite The Blues just two minutes later when Blues failed to clear a Charlton cross and former Blue Emma Follis played the ball out to Ella Rutherford on the edge of the area, who placed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner. 1-0 to Charlton. Both teams had their chances following the early goal, Jade Pennock firing over the bar with an effort from outside the area and Lucy Thomas in the Birmingham goal making a good save to keep out Angela Addison. Green forced Rogers into a couple of saves with a free-kick from outside the area and another long-range shot a few minutes later, but unfortunately Blues just couldn't find the back of the net. Charlton, on the other hand, did manage to find the back of the net again and found themselves 2-0 up in the 40th minute. Following a Charlton corner, the ball bounced off of a few players, but Addison was quickest to react and side footed the ball just beyond the reach of Thomas. As Blues looked to get a goal back before half-time, Pennock put the ball just wide as she tried to place her shot into the net. Perhaps Blues best chance of the game. After nine minutes played of five added minutes, the much needed half-time whistle finally came.

Just three minutes into the second-half, Blues had a penalty shout turned down by the referee. A free-kick from Green appeared to come off of a Charlton hand before making its way out for a corner, but the referee waved away the protests and gave the corner. A decision made all the more crucial when, a minute later, Charlton got their third goal. Charlton nicked the ball from the Blues defence and Rutherford blasted the ball towards goal from about 25 yards out. The ball smashed against the post but bounced off the back of Thomas' head and into the goal. Nothing much Lucy could do about that, but the game now seemed out of reach for The Blues. Siobhan Wilson had an attempt to get Birmingham back into the game in the 60th minute, but she couldn't quite get hold of the ball properly and fired wide. In truth, the game wasn't much after that. Charlton had a 3-0 lead to defend and managed that well. The Blues did have a couple of 'almost' chances around the 80th minute mark but were unable to find the back of the net. Some brave goalkeeping from Thomas towards the end of the game kept the score-line at 3-0. Some good pressure from the Charlton attack saw Thomas lose the ball, but she made up for it by throwing herself at the feet of the Charlton players to make two great saves and I'm pretty sure the second one was with her face! Charlton could have had a fourth just before full-time when Addison found herself free of The Blues defence, but Thomas came out to prevent the shot and gather the ball.

3-0 to Charlton the end result in what seemed like the longest game ever. It seemed a strange day for The Blues and something didn't seem quite right. That's not how we have been playing the last couple of games and morale seemed low. Charlton did very well to keep closing us down and managed to get all the luck, but luck isn't what we play for and they beat us fair and square. The first loss I've reported on since starting this blog and it's not easy to do!

A positive from the game was Delphi Cole making her league debut at just 16 years old. Coming on as a sub in the second half, Cole showed good positional awareness and made some great runs down the wing to fire crosses in. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of her on the pitch as the season goes on. Congratulations Delphi!

The Blues are back at St Andrews this weekend for a local derby against Coventry United. The Blues Women Supporters Group will be meeting at The Roost at 12pm and we hope to see as many of you there as possible! 

KRO!