Sunday 10 November 2024
North West Women's Football League

West Didsbury & Chorlton 3
Irving 21
Henderson 49
Bergin 66

Salford City Lionesses 1
Jein 90+3

West line-up:
1 Dickin, 3 Soñes Devally, 5 Mason (c), 8 Henderson (4 Albo, 75 mins), 9 Bergin (7 Bradshaw, 82 mins), 10 Davies (8 Simpson, 46 mins), 11 Irving (14 Ritchie, 75 mins), 15 Bracegirdle, 16 Hart (2 Dolan, 46 mins), 18 Simons, 19 Brown

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West played their first home league game since late August looking to register their first home points of the campaign against Salford City. West had travelled to Salford earlier in the season and drew 1-1 in a tight encounter so knew that this would be another challenge.

There were four changes to the starting XI from the Bury game last week, with the return of Avilla Bergin, for the absent Amy Vyas with Helana Irving, Evie Davies and Ash Hart starting ahead of Holly Bradshaw, Becca Simpson and Sofia Albo who dropped to the bench.

It wasn’t until the 12th minute that either keeper was called in to action when Salford's keeper made a fine save to her left from a Bergin shot.

Salford responded in similar fashion with Megan Dickin called upon to make a fairly routine save on 17 minutes.

West took the lead on 22 minutes when Irving followed in on a shot from Bergin that was only parried in to a central area for her to pounce.

The remainder of the half saw both teams probing but not penetrating back lines until two minutes of stoppage time saw a Kye Brown effort well held by the Salford keeper, which meant West went in at the break with a slender one-goal lead.

West were the dominant attacking force and after another Bergin run the ball fell to Irving who neatly avoided the Salford defence's attempts at clearing the ball and laid it back perfectly for the on-rushing Chloe Henderson to register her first club goal after arriving from Litherland REMYCA in the summer.

The West pressure continued and Irving provided another opportunity, this time for Sophie Bracegirdle who could only direct her powerful shot at the Salford keeper.

Both Bergin and Irving had shots from distance after defensive errors with both being comfortably saved or cleared in the case of Irving.

In the 66th minute Salford had a corner which West cleared and countered with pace to put the game beyond doubt and give Bergin the goal her performance had warranted as she accelerated past the Salford defence and shot powerfully across the keeper.

West made changes at 75 minutes with Niamh Ritchie and Albo replacing Henderson and Irving respectively, and West were comfortable in dealing with any Salford attacks and still carried a threat on the counter attack.

Bradshaw replaced Bergin on 82 minutes and supplied an excellent cross in stoppage time for Bracegirdle to smash her shot against the bar from close distance. 

Final act of the half saw Salford scramble a consolation goal much to the frustration of the West team who were hoping for a second shut out in a row.

The 3-1 win moves us up to sixth place in the NWWRFL Premier Division ahead of another away match next week as we travel to Darwen, with a score to settle having fallen to a defeat in the cup there last month.

Kick off is at 2pm and it would be great to see as many of you as possible there cheering the team on!

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Your Supporter of the Match was Hazel, and she chose Avilla Bergin as her Player of the Match.

Avilla is sponsored by the West Silver Surfers.