Sunday 19th February 2006

Newport City Strikers LFC 5  v  Ferndale Fillies 3

Newport played host to a Ferndale side that had netted 16 goals in their last two games. This soon became evident within the first few minutes of play, when they produced a fine save from Newport's newly signed goalkeeper, Gemma Harris. The first quarter of an hour saw Ferndale control the game with Newport struggling to find any rhythm. This all changed on twenty minutes, when Vicky Randall was brought down in the penalty box and Terri Thomas stepped up to calmly put the ball past the keeper.

This brought about a passage of play that saw the Ferndale keeper make a good save from Kath Ball and stop a 30 yarder from Terri. From a Newport corner, Cerys Pike shot through a group of players, to put Newport 2-0 up. Newport went into the break with a third goal, Cerys playing Lyndsay Morgan through, who then went on to beat the keeper.

The second half saw Newport substitute Sarah Evans for Gabby Hopkins on the wing. Again Ferndale started well and this time they were rewarded for their pressure with two goals by their young no 10, the second of which was a stunner! This was the wake up call Newport required and some good passing movements resulted in saves from Demi Clay, Lyndsay and Kath.

It was only a matter of time before Newport added to their score and on 67 minutes, Kath made it 4-2, with a simple tap in. Then after some good work on the right, Hope Suominen crossed the perfect ball for Demi to head in. The game was end to end with Ferndale still not out of it,  pulling a goal back within minutes.

In the final minutes of the game, Gabby had to be substituted for Tiffany Race due to an injury. At the final whistle Newport had won a highly contested game 5-3, that was  full of both commitment and goals.

Next Home Fixture: v Haverfordwest 26th Feb. 2:00pm KO

 Report by Tom Timewell

Tuesday 7th February 2006

 South Wales League 4v1 Pembroke League

 Pembroke proved to be a tough well organised outfit and made things difficult for the South Wales side early on. However in very cold and windy conditions South Wales gradually took control of the match. It was therefore no surprise when we took the lead. Albeit the goal coming from a sliced attempted clearance by a Pembroke defender when the wind helped make sure the ball found the back of the net.

 After a lovely spell of football Demi finished superbly in the box to put the claret shirted South Wales team 2-0 up. The second half started with Kate having to come off due to a muscle injury. Due to the conditions and some over confident play by South Wales, Pembroke pulled a goal back when a break down their left found the ball beating our keeper on the near post.

 From then on however it was back to one way traffic. Hope was working tirelessly throughout  from left midfield. Finally the South Wales’ Swansea City striker scored our third goal before Cerys came off the bench to cut inside and send a scorcher past their helpless keeper.  All of our girls aquited themselves well in the South Wales Representative team’s well deserved 4-1 win.