Shelbie Welch (far) hit the opening goal, Sion Kamiende (near) hit the second with her first senior score.
0-0 at half time, and then...
On Sunday 8th September, at Buckhurst Hill, Orient’s ladies played their seventh pre-season match, this time against nearby rivals Chigwell WFC. Both clubs play at Tier 7 of the women’s game although not in the same league.
O’s gaffer Danny Martin is clearly a cunning coach in that he seemed to set up to hold a tall and athletic Chigwell side at bay and keep the “goals against” column under better control than has been the case during pre-season. That’s how the first half played out with the ladies from Essex never getting anywhere near the Orient goal. Meanwhile, Jordan Feldman (twice), Shelbie Welch and Grace Collins-Edwards all got themselves into good positions but were unable to beat the visiting keeper.
It was goalless at HT but then the home tactics changed as they pushed forward, Shelbie Welch smashed in a net-buster to break the deadlock at 50 mins.
Sion Kamiende, promoted from last year’s under-18s side, stepped up to hit her debut senior goal and O’s 2nd at 52 mins.
At 57 mins, A Layla Crouch-Salmon’s corner was met by Liliana Almeida to extend the lead to 3:0. We've seen this move before, and we were to see it again.
It was all one way traffic as our girls were now dominating the game. Liliana was having a great time, she hit a free kick into the keeper's arms, thumped a penalty against the post and then, at 64 mins, she and Layla Crouch-Salmon repeated their earlier ploy from a corner so 3:0 became 4:0.
At 75 mins. Layla Crouch Salmon took another corner and found Liliana with it ..again! Inevitably it raised the score to 5:0.
Long serving midfielder Ebony Heath got her name on the scoresheet at 86mins to round off a good days work for the Os with a resounding 6:0 victory.
Just before the final whistle, Thara Said almost added a 7th with a fierce shot which the Chigwell keeper just managed to deflect over the bar.
Kudos to Danny Martin, Chris Bright and Olivia Worsfold, we saw something of a master-class today. Chigwell are no pushovers, consecutive promotions over the last two years is a testament to their quality.
Liliana Almeida
Hat-tricks are hard to achieve at any level of football but, at this game, we saw something of a double act as Layla Crouch Salmon served up three corners which found Liliana Almeida who made them all tell and effectively end the game as a contest. Bravo to both ladies, a big cheer from everyone at the touchline who appreciated the quality on show.
Hat-Trick lass Liliana Almeida
GLWFL Premiership results
The Greater London Women's Football League (GLWFL) - Premier division, started on Sunday, we were not yet involved due to the "will we - won't we" saga about our non-transfer to the Essex Country Women's Premier league. That's all history now (isn't it???) so here are the results of our opponents:-
Ham'smith 11:0 Headstone M
Camden Tn 6:1 CandI Utd
Luton Tn 1:3 Islington
Tooting Bec 1:1 Comets
Brentford 0:2 Sth London
Three of the four promoted teams lost, the exception was last season's division one champions South London who won against fellow promotees Brentford 'B'. It's common knowledge that recruitment at the Premier division level has been very difficult this year and, in the case of Headstone Manor, they suffered the loss of their (in our view) top two stars in Rebekah Higgins and Aimee Shaw. An eleven goal drubbing at the hands of an always-strong Hammersmith side will be a bitter pill to swallow.
We open our league programme on 22nd September at home to Camden Town, they are always a difficult and strong side. Currently there is no game next Sunday, our next booked match will be an FA Cup tie against Oaklands Wolves, a talent filled team working under the general umbrella of Arsenal ladies.
Supporting us as we support the ladies.
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