Women's Report | Cards into Chairman's Cup semi finals

Woking took another step closer to retaining their SRWFL Chairman’s Cup title thanks to a hard-fought victory at Sheerwater’s Eastwood Centre against tier-five side Winchester City Flyers. A late second-half strike, added to a dominant first 45 minutes, was enough for the squad of 11 to get over the line and into the Semi-Final.

The Cards got off to a flyer in the first five minutes when Bianca Underhill’s corner from the left-hand side was headed into the back of the net by a visiting player, and then two minutes after that, it was two. This time, a piece of incredible skill by Gaby Hobday allowed her to find Charlotte Keenan at the back post who played the ball back to Trudy Bryan-Kerr to tap home from close range. This was Trudy’s 11th goal of the season and her 9th in cup competitions.

Winchester’s first chance came when an audacious attempt from the halfway line was just pushed away from danger by Amy Jenkins in goal. The resulting corner was also cleared.

Within 20 minutes of the game, the hosts had taken the South Coast team to the cleaners and made it three to the good. This time Helen Ogle made a super run on the left and found a cross into the box which deflected into the path of Sheena Nichol and was fired home into the roof of the net. The number 8 who turns 26 on Tuesday continued where she left off on this pitch, with another great strike on the edge of the box.

Gaby had been running rings out on the left-hand side all game and had an opportunity to grab a fourth but forced a great diving save from the goalkeeper.

Winchester came close on a handful of occasions and was denied by Amy but had an even greater chance that should have been converted, but instead, was smashed against the crossbar.

Just before half-time, Winchester’s number 10 was booked for dissent towards the referee.

HT: Woking 3-0 Winchester City Flyers

In the second half, the visitors had the luxury of making roll-on-roll-off substitutions and it caught the home side out. They pulled a goal back in the early stages of the second half after a miss-timed pass from Amy at the back.

Bianca nearly added to her goal tally straight from kick-off when her cross-shot from the right agonisingly hit the bar before being booted away.

The visitors were applying plenty of pressure and had got a second goal in the 70th minute with a loose ball being punished. The starting XI were on course for 180 minutes in the space of a week without any substitutions available and it started to show towards the end of the game. However, the players dug deep and showed their commitment to the badge when they found a fourth five minutes later. Sheena played an excellent pass in behind the defence which Gaby tucked away first time to restore a two-goal advantage.

Winchester did grab a third right at the death but ultimately it was the Cards who marched on into the last four of the competition.

FT: Woking 4-3 Winchester City Flyers

A spectacular performance with the circumstances surrounding the team starts the month of March with a great win against a team in the division above. Whilst promotion is off the table this season, the team will be looking to finish inside the top three with two league games left and of course, this Semi-final that is soon to come.



Starting XI: Jenkins, Mitchell, Cotter ©, Burgess, Underhill, Theocharous, Nichol, Ogle, Hobday, Bryan-Kerr, Keenan

Attendance: 27

Players of the Match: Efrosyni Theocharous & Gaby Hobday