FRONTIERS Ladies strong start to the season continued with a victory against Wormley Rovers.

The game started at a quick pace and in the first couple of minutes Ash Simonelli broke down the left hand side at pace and crossed the ball in to the box to find the feet of Tayla Handscome at the front post who’s flick with the outside of her foot hit the woodwork and bounced nicely for the home side to clear.

On one of the hottest days of the year and with a lot of the play coming in the midfield areas it would be Frontiers who would have the next opportunity with Lauren Yeats passing the ball down the right in to the channel for loan strike Bee Taspinar to shut down the defender, Bee didn’t give up on it and would nip in front of the home sides left back to then to drill the ball across the box to find Tayla Handcomb who struck the ball twice only for the home sides goalkeeper to make a double save but unlike the chance in the first minute the ball fell into the path of Bee Tapinar who would strike the ball home left footed and get the reward for her earlier work. 0-1.

As the half went on Wormley started to come in to the game but Frontiers strong defensive unit limited them to only having long range efforts that were comfortably dealt with by goalkeeper Jill Bartholomew. Wormley won a free kick 25 yards from goal with not long to go in the firsthalf, the Wormley player stepped up struck the ball around the wall only for goalkeeper Jill Bartholomew to quickly move to her left and make a top class fingertip save round the post to make sure we went into the break 1-0 up. 

In the early stages of the second half both teams created half chances but again most things were dealt with comfortably by both sides. You could see both teams getting tired from coping with the heat but in the 70th minute Bee Taspinar made a jinking run in the box to only to be fouled by the defender and the referee awarded the penalty.

Penalty taker Tayla Handscomb stepped up and unfortunately saw her kick pass wide of the post. As expected Wormley pushed on to try and find a equaliser but some resolute defending from the Frontiers back line managed to keep them at bay for the time being. Wormley were finding it hard to break down the Frontiers defence until in the 90th minute the home sides right winger gathered the ball beat a couple of defenders and passed the ball home far in to the bottom corner to make it 1-1. With just 3 minutes to play the game ended in a draw and the game went straight to penalties.

Frontiers were up first and goalkeeper Jill Bartholomew stepped up to take it only to be saved by her opposite number, but she would quickly redeem the situation by diving down low to her left and save Wormleys first spot kick. Next to step up would be Tayla Handscomb who had previously missed one in normal time but dusted herself off and calmly smashed the ball in to the bottom corner to the goalkeepers left 1-0. Wormleys next taker stepped up and put her spot kick over the bar.

Next to step up for Frontiers would be late substitute Jamie-Lee Hunter who blasted the ball past the keeper and give the away side a strong lead 2-0. In reply the 3rd taker for the home side would score to make it 2-1 sending the ball far in to the corner giving Jill no chance. 4th taker for Frontiers Bee Taspinar still have that confidence after such a great game and slotted home her penalty in to bottom left hand corner to make it 3-1. Now with pressure on Wormleys 4th taker having to score to keep the tie alive which she did and made it 3-2. Knowing that if she scored she would send Frontiers throughput, Katie Williams stepped up to take our 5th she placed the ball on the spot stepped back, confidently ran up and fired it in to the top corner giving the goalkeeper no chance and sealing the victory for Frontiers sending them in to the next round.

Manager Ronnie Yates said after the game “What a team performance from the players today, to play a team in a higher division who started their league campaign 3 weeks ago and this one being our first competitive game of the season goes to show what character strengths we have in this group, we have a great bunch of players with a never say die attitude”. 

“And who doesn’t love a cup run? We’re at the lowest step that can enter the competition and there’s always a couple of lower teams who are labelled as ‘giant killers’ that go on a cup run and we definitely have the quality to do it”.

We host Hartford Town in the next round who also play eastern regions football on the 1st of October.