Coventry City Ladies suffered an early blow to their promotion campaign at the hands of City rivals Coventry Copsewood Ladies. Nicola Foskett's 77th minute strike was enough to hand the spoils to Copsewood in their Midlands Combination debut and strike an early blow to the Sky Blues' title hopes.
Neither team was able to wrestle control of the match in a scrappy first half that saw only one shot on target. After the break Coventry began to assert some dominance, Cherelle Archibald's 46th minute effort from outside the box had Natasha Smithers well beaten in the Copsewood goal but the ball cannoned back off the post. Danni Saulter followed up but her shot flew narrowly wide.
Some beautiful build up from Kelly Henson & Archibald on 56 minutes released Saulter who picked the ball up outside the box & outpaced one defender before setting to shoot, Smithers however had seen the danger & raced of her line to bravely block the effort & alleviate the threat.
Copsewood had defended well in numbers all afternoon but created few clear cut chances going forward, however, as the Sky Blues continued to push further forward looking for an elusive goal it was Copsewoods' Natasha White, who'd only entered the game one minute earlier, that was able to unlock Coventry's defence. A 76th minute substitute, White picked up the ball on the right hand edge of the Sky Blues box & displayed good vision to pick out an unmarked Nicola Foskett. Adele Rogers did her best to narrow the angle but had no chance as Foskett calmly placed the ball passed the despairing 'keeper & into the net.
Coventry's fightback was spirited but to no avail as first Saulter hit the bar with a lobbed effort in the 90th minute & then Katy Moran followed suit deep into stoppage time direct from a free kick. Manager Matt Whitehouse was understandably disappointed "I didn't feel that we deserved to lose today. The first half was a sluggish affair but we came out in the second half & I really thought it was a matter of time before we scored but, unfortunately, we just couldn't finish our chance which we must do in order to win games".
The Sky Blues Co-Manager was positive thought that his players would respond well for next weeks home clash with WBA "I'm confident that the girls will be motivated by this & will be firing again next Sunday against what will be even tougher opposition". The game will be played at Coventry University's Westwood Heath Sports Grounds, kick off is 14:00 & entrance is free.
Line-up: Rogers, Dermody, Forbes, Pinner (Ogle 79), Lynch (c), Bryenton, Formaston (Lowe 89), Moran, Archibald, Saulter, Henson (Willis 74). Unused subs: Williamson, Wilcox.
Nicola Foskett (11)