Long Eaton Villa 1-1 Coventry City Ladies
Midlands Combination League
29th April 2007
By Christine Wheeler
Coventry City Ladies were forced into playing 15 year old Sarah Morgan in goal for their 1-1 draw at Long Eaton Villa after an injury to Kerry Williamson.
Coventry's regular number one had broken her collarbone the day before and second choice Katie George was unavailable, which meant Morgan was called up from the reserves.
Manager Stuart Wilson was full of praise for the stand in keeper: "She did fantastic. Her handling was pretty good. It was unlucky that she couldn't do anything about the goal".
Since promotion had already been decided, the game was a typical end of season affair with players just going through the motions.
It was only a goalkeeping error that allowed the visitors to take the lead just after the second half restart. Tara Phelan should easily have dealt with a Kelly-Anne Willis free kick, but instead fumbled the ball into the back of her own net.
Long Eaton Villa almost drew level with six minutes remaining, but Sam Griffiths saw her effort clatter off the bar. Sarah Morgan was still to be denied a clean sheet on her debut though as three minutes later Julie Cakes slotted home Griffiths corner.
Wilson knew how inconsequential the game was, "It's an end of season game where it doesn't matter to either team and the players played like that. We tried to rally them, but everyone knows we finished second so what happened today didn't matter".
Coventry City Ladies squad: Sarah Morgan, Helen Dermody, Jenni Lowe, Maria Cartwright, Natasha Lynch, Ali Forbes, Natalie Wilcox (Jodie White, 58), Emma Lipman, Kelly-Anne Willis (Mel Byrne, 65), Sinead Wade, Natalie Brace (Kelly Henson, 74).