The Professional Game Academy League north London derby ended in defeat for our Women’s Under-19s as Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners on Wednesday afternoon.
Facing our local rivals at Hotspur Way for our first home league game of the campaign, the visitors broke the deadlock midway through the first half, Abi Conway converting from point-blank range, and despite Sophie Jackson producing a fantastic save to deny Gaby Dimmock’s penalty, Bella Cowley doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time.
They picked up where they left off just three minutes after the restart as Mia Dixon calmly converted into the bottom corner, leaving us a steep hill to climb for the second period. In truth, we got ourselves into a number of good positions but lacked the final pass, failing to test Arsenal’s shot stopper throughout the game, as we were consigned to back-to-back defeats in the league.
Sabiha Jamal was able to call upon a number of players who have been a part of first team training in recent weeks - Ruby Mace, Mia Endacott, Sophie Jackson and Jhanaie Pierre named in the starting XI, and the latter was quickly involved in the action under wet conditions in Enfield.
Endacott and Pierre linked up on three minutes to carve out the first opportunity of the game, the former seeing her effort from the edge of the box blocked before Mace played the ball through to Pierre on the left area of the box, but her low drilled cross evaded a number of players in the area. Jackson was called into action at the other end on 11 minutes, advancing quickly off her line to deny Conway after she raced behind our backline.
With both sides struggling to maintain long spells of possession, the visitors managed to rack up a number of corners in quick succession and they eventually punished us on 21 minutes. The delivery from the left wasn’t held by Jackson and, despite strong appeals of a foul on our shot stopper, Conway was there to force the ball from close range. Arsenal were then awarded a penalty just before the half-hour mark after Lucy Barraclough brought Sophia Leonard down inside the box, but Jackson stood strong to get down to her left to save Gimmock’s spot-kick. Pierre curled an effort wide before Grace Breen drilled a low free-kick wide as we searched for an equaliser but instead, on the stroke of half-time, it was Arsenal who doubled their advantage as Cowley converted from close range after Jackson was unable to claim the corner.
Despite Beatrice Cunnison’s header from Endacott’s header to force Chiemela Ude into action, matters got worse for our young side three minutes after the restart when Dixon advanced through on-goal before calmly slotting into the bottom corner. Chances were few and far between after the visitors third, Phoebe de Bohan firing the ball into the side-netting from a tight angle, while at the other end, Pierre saw a strong left-footed strike pushed over the bar by Ude.
Jackson then denied Freya Woods inside the box after we were unable to clear our lines inside the box before Pierre, after a short free-kick routine from Mace, drilled an effort from distance straight into the hands of their shot stopper in what were the only notable chances in the closing stages of the contest, with our focus now quickly switching to our FA Women’s National League Cup fixture at Oxford United on Sunday.
"It’s still early days for the development, so there’s still plenty to work on"
Reflecting on the game, Head Coach Jamal said: "We’re obviously disappointed with the final outcome. We showed positive moments but, for large parts of the game, I felt we just lacked consistency. We had plenty of moments where we could control the game, and ultimately that’s the frustration on reflection. But, again, we will have to reflect and take accountability for the result. It’s still early days for the development of the players this season so there’s still plenty to work on, but we need to regroup and turn our focus back to the FAWNL Cup against senior opposition, Oxford United, which will provide our players with another useful experience on top of the clash with Arsenal."