Match report: Cardiff City LFC 1-1 Chatham Town WFC

Cardiff City Ladies 1-1 Chatham Town Women

A pair of first half goals at Amdani Hi saw Cardiff City Ladies and Chatham Town women share the points in the FAWNL Southern Premier Division.

City came into the game off the back of an impressive 0-4 victory at London Bees, while the visitors were still searching for their first win of the campaign.

The Dragons started the stronger, creating a number of chances in the opening ten minutes as they looked to test Cara Davies in the Chatham goal.

It wouldn’t take long for the hosts to find the breakthrough, when Libby Piggott found the top corner with a spectacular curling effort after a mazy run through the visiting defence.

Chatham responded well to going behind and would find themselves level just minutes later when Ellie Jeffkins rifled a free kick into the far corner of Laura O’Sullivan’s goal.

The game was halted for a number of minutes after City’s Isobel Newns suffered a nasty-looking injury and had to be stretchered off the field.

The resulting period of added time brought a number of chances for both sides. Chloe Lloyd first saw a powerful effort from outside the box held by Davies, before Grace Coombs spurned a chance to put Chatham ahead to close out the half.

The Dragons began the second half strongly and came close to taking the lead early on – nice linkup play between Cori Williams and substitute Estelle Harrison produced a chance for the captain, but her curled effort skimmed the crossbar.

The rest of the half passed without much incident, but it was Cardiff who came closest to finding a winning goal. Chloe Lloyd danced into the Chatham box and flashed a ball cross the six yard box, although there was nobody there to meet it.

It proved to be the final chance of the afternoon, with the spoils shared at the end of a closely-fought game. Chatham travel back to Kent with a valuable point thanks to an impressive defensive performance.

City are next in action against in-form MK Dons at Amdani Hi on Sunday 22nd October.

Match report by Matt Chedgzoy

Photos by Megan Monk