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Brighton & Hove Actually Women face Aston Villa Women in the FA Cup 5th Round at the Poundland Stadium |
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The Seagulls travel to the West Midlands to play the Villains at a cold, damp and overcast Bescot Stadium. The Seagulls beat Durham 3-1 at the Amex training centre after some ‘issues’ with the pitch in Crawley. This should be a tougher test as Villa are vying with the Seagulls, Spurs and Liverpool to be the best of the rest in the WSL. No points on offer today though, just a place in the last 8☝. There is a new face in the Albion line up. It’s Nadine Noordam who we last saw playing for Ajax against Chelsea in the Champions League a year ago. Maddie is banned after being sent off last week. Melina keeps her place in goal 🥅. Bruna is injured and has gone back to Barca ✈. Kieke is injured and not in the squad today. The Villians have the usual suspects plus our own Katie Robinson who is on the bench. We have arrived in plenty of time thanks to the excellent Dave the Driver 🚌. 32 fans and a meerkat travelled on the coach. It’s a cup 🏆 game so the risk of extra time and penalties is ever present. Hope not though as we have to get back in time for the men’s game at the Amex. We meet up with the Villain’s mascot in the carpark. It’s Olaf ☃ but in need of a good wash. The pitch doesn’t look great. It’s got even less grass than the Broadfield. There are about 50 of us. There is a group of about 20 Villians behind the goal making a good noise. They have a bigger drum 🥁 than we do but we do our best with 🎶Sussex by the Sea🎶 as the teams come out.
It’s all Villains from the kick off and Brighton can’t keep hold of the ball. It’s very broken up and scrappy, not helped by he state of the pitch. The Seagulls start to come back into it after about 15 minutes. Nikita’s shot is saved. Jelena’s free kick drops to Maria but she can’t sort her feet to prod it home. Nadine is starting to come into the game a bit and is looking like a good addition. The Albions are given the strangest free kick on 36. Anna Patten returns to the pitch without the ref’s permission and so she gives us a free kick. There is confusion before it’s taken, unsuprisingly more so because it’s indirect. Still ends up wasted though. Maddie gets her chance but the shot is saved. The Villains are outraged when Kirsty Hanson isn’t given a pen but it’s waved away. Oh dear, what a shame, never mind. The breakthrough comes when a mistake by Lucy Parker sees the ball fall for Nikita who makes it count. on 45. Into injury time and Villa get a corner. It’s a scamble in the box and it drops to the unmarked Anna Patten who prods it home on 45+2. Bugger. Level at the break.
It’s a rare bit of quality on the pitch that sees the Villains take the lead. It’s a Rachel Daly header from the middle of the box on 50. 2-1. They finish us off with a 3rd on 55 as Chastity Grant runs on to a through ball and scores from a tight angle. 3-1. The Seagulls protest 🙋 about it being off-side and Dotti ends up getting booked for something 🤷. Jelena hits one of her great freekicks but it’s saved in the top corner. The Seagulls' changes start on 66. Nadine is replaced by Pauline, Vicky by Marisa and Jorelyn by Dejana. Hope that adds a bit more energy. We get a goal back as Nikita finishes from Maddie’s cross. 3-2. Anna Patten goes down injured again. She gets up, goes down etc and is finally subbed off. We get lucky as there is a mix up between Maria and Melina but the Villains can’t capitalise. Jelena has not stopped running but she can have a rest now as she is replaced by Michelle on 82. Villa are starting to waste even more time now. We breathe a sigh of relief as Rachel Daly goes off only to groan as Ebony Salmon replaces her. The Seagulls are playing better now and get some chances as Michelle has a positive impact. She gets caught off-side in the last action of the game. A frustrating 3-2 loss. We may have lost but at least we did it in 90 minutes so we can get off back to the Amex now.
That was fun and frustrating in equal measure. The actual game was the frustrating bit as the Seagulls struggled to pass on the lumpy muddy pitch. The coach trip and spectating were fun 🎉. The Villains Ultras, all 20 of them, competed to make a good noise and the banter was good natured. “You’re only here to steal our chips” beats “you’re just a sh*t West Ham” everytime. The attendance was very low, 500 maybe. So low it’s not been officially published. Embarrassing, although it isn’t their usual venue as they are normally based at Villa Park. We need to have different ideas when Plan A doesn’t work due to the conditions. Anyway, we’re concentrating on the league now and looking forward to the Hammers away next Sunday. That’s all for now. Got to get back to the Amex to watch the boys.
POTM: Goes to Maddie for a gutsy performance and an assist 🏅. Special mention goes to Dave the Driver 🚌 who got us there and back safely and in good time.
The ref will be disappointed with her poor day at the office today. At least we hope she would be disappointed although she may be oblivious to or even proud of her performance or lack thereof. Villa got a foul for flattening their own keeper. The keeper herself flattened Nikita and got a free kick for it. NAd booking Dotti for pointing out the bleeding obvious. Enough said.
The Scran’O’meter thought the Vegan Pukka pie managed a mediocre 6/10 and the hot chocolate earned a watery 6/10 despite adding loads of sugar. We should have had the chips which were apparently very nice. We would also have paid for them and not stolen them as per our reputation.
Long trip back to Brighton now. See you later.
Love Tranmerekat 🐾
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