Abbeymead Rovers Ladies First v Bristol Ladies Union 1st, 18th January 2026
The second trip to Abbeydale in as many weekends, and this time we had no wind, but we did get the rain. A sticky and bobbly pitch gave both teams a tough workout, and with only one substitute on the bench we knew we were going to have to manage the fatigue towards the latter stages of the game.
A bright start for both teams, with good movement on the ball and some solid defending. Retaining possession was tricky on the rough and sticky surface, so the direction of play was switching continually. For a while we were struggling to get out of our half, and at the 13 minute mark Abbeymead opened up the score-line. This was looking like familiar territory. The back four were working hard to shut down attacks, and despite football being a contact sport, Lilly was shown a yellow card for muscling a player off the ball. Nobody really understood why the ref chose to show a card for what was basically robust jostling, and even the opposition coach said it was too harsh. There were a few more interesting decisions by the referee through the rest of the first half, most of which seemed to go against us, but that’s just football. As the half continued BLU looked stronger and more confident on the ball, but we weren’t able to get the equaliser, so in a carbon copy of the previous week we ended the half a goal down.
We had a solid start to the second half, controlling play at times but also dealing with counter attacks confidently. Both teams were playing hard, and with the amount of mud on the pitch it might have looked more like a rugby game to the casual observer. At one point Abbeymead made a strong attack down the right hand side, Connie chasing down at breakneck speed put in a perfectly timed last-ditch sliding tackle, and carried on sliding into the middle of the next week. BLU had several good opportunities which didn’t quite find the net, one of which sent across the face of the goal towards the bottom left corner was only just kept out by the keeper’s toe, and then finally Evie managed to score the equaliser. As the second half continued the fatigue increased. At times play because scrappy, and as with the previous week there were one or two long stoppages. There were a few more opportunities at both ends, but neither team could break the deadlock and as the light faded the final whistle came with the scores at 1-1.
BLU and Abbeymead are evenly matched which makes for really competitive games, so taking a point from this one was a decent outcome. We look forward to hosting them at Coombe Dingle in March. Player of the Match was awarded to Imy for making a habit of getting herself in the right place at the right time throughout the game, and the Magic Moment was Connie’s super sliding tackle. A big welcome back to Grace, who made her season debut and hopefully not her last game this year!
