With the sun shining brightly on a good looking green pitch, the day looked
more early spring than February; and the Sky Blue Ladies responded with a
bright display to match the occasion.
Stuart Wilson was forced to shuffle his pack following injuries to strikers
Keeley Lowe and Sinead Wade, so right back Helen Dermody returned from
England Colleges to play up front alongside Kelly-Ann Willis. Both had
numerous opportunities to score in a first half dominated by the home side,
but Leicester's Chloe Fensome was in typically fine form, producing a number
of fine saves from Dermody in particular and also stinging long range
efforts from Kirsty O'Sullivan.
On 38 minutes though, O'Sullivan side footed in from much shorter range when she met Dermody's measured pass along the 6 yard line. If the first goal was a long time coming, the second followed much quicker when Formaston burst into the box just one minute later to finish with a low drive into the bottom left.
The 2nd half was more even with Leicester showing more intent but producing little in the final third, where Tash Lynch always seemed to have Stephens and the lively Jodie White under control.
With City coasting though, the game was in danger of losing momentum. Wilson brought on Packer, Saulter and Wilcox and immediately following the 3rd of these the Sky Blue Ladies went three up, Willis feeding Saulter, who
finished with a rising right foot shot into the far corner from 15 yards.
The last 15 minutes was all one way traffic, with Nat Brace and Formaston
raiding down the flanks and Leicester struggling to clear their lines.
On 88 minutes, 'Formo' jinked into the right hand edge of the box, turned
inside and slid the ball low past Fensome into the net. And seconds later,
City made it a nap hand straight from the re-start when Kelly-Ann Willis won
possession and went on a mazy run through four half-hearted tackles before
threading through to Danni Saulter who rolled the ball past the onrushing
Fensome into the empty net to bag her second and City's fifth.
Their sixth consecutive win sees the Cassidy Sky Blues move up into 2nd
place in the Midland Combination League and keeps them in contention for the promotion spot to Premier League
Team: Williamson, Pinner, J. Lowe, O'Sullivan (Packer 65), Lynch, Forbes
(Wilcox 76), Formaston, Henson, Willis, Dermody (Saulter 69), Brace
1 Leics FCW 13 11 1 1 44 10 34 34
2 Cov City 14 10 2 2 62 11 51 32
3 WBA 14 10 2 2 66 19 47 32
4 L'borough 17 10 4 3 59 19 40 28
5 Wolves 12 8 2 2 51 11 40 26
6 Leics Ladies 17 6 3 8 37 42 -5 21
7 Leafield 14 5 4 5 30 30 0 19
8 Derby Co 13 5 2 6 23 23 0 17
9 Alfreton 15 2 6 7 24 41 -17 12
10 TNS 16 3 4 9 37 51 -14 10
11 Hereford 13 0 2 11 8 73 -65 2
12 Sheff Utd 14 0 0 14 5 116 -111 0
Coventry Copsewood kept up their promotion hopes from the West Midlands Regional League with a 4-2 win at Lichfield. The game was not with out its cost and Copsewood lost Maria Cartwright with an ankle ligament injury which will keep her out for six weeks.