East Women’s League

Premier A

CHELMSFORD had to settle for a frustrating point on Saturday against strugglers Bishops Stortford. Despite a dominant performance from start to finish, their strikers consistently failed to find the back of the net.

As has been the case in recent week, Chelmsford started brightly and forced a number of short corners, but first Tom Fanger’s effort was well saved by the Stortford keeper, and then the post came to their rescue as the visitors’ goal was bombarded from the off.

Chelmsford continued to push forward with their best chance falling to Adam Hunter after beating a couple of defenders, but he aimed his shot straight at the keeper.

Having virtually camped in their opponents’ half, it was a shock when the hosts fell a goal behind when Stortford forced their first short corner of the game. Despite the initial routine breaking down, Tom Kemp was able to gather the ball at the top of the D and slot the ball past Jason Evans in the Chelmsford goal.

Going a goal down seemed to be the catalyst for Chelmsford’s forwards, and just minutes after conceding the first goal, they equalised when Dillet Gilkes picked out Simon Taylor on the Stortford by-line. Taylor quickly propelled the ball across the face of goal, but as a defender tried to intercept the cross, turned the ball past the keeper and into his own goal.

As the second half commenced, it was quickly apparent that Chelmsford would be equally in control as the first but they couldn’t turn their superiority into goals, with Harry Rayner blazing a golden chance over the bar and Taylor seeing a deflection creep agonisingly past the far post.

As the final whistle approached and with players piling forward, Stortford nearly stole the most unlikely of victories with a number of swift counter-attacks, but last gasp defending and some superb goalkeeping kept the Chelmsford goal intact.

Next week Chelmsford make the long trip to Norwich City in the league on Saturday before hosting Oxford Hawks at Chelmer Park in the cup on Sunday at noon.