PREVIEW Women Enter The Hive

OUWFC travel to London Bees on Sunday

20 October 2023

Oxford United Women travel to London Bees on Sunday 22nd October in the FAWNL Southern Premier Division.

Kick off is at 2PM at the Hive Stadium, HA8 6AG.

The U’s go into the game off the back of two wins having had a blank weekend last week.

Confidence is high following an excellent display and 2-1 win over Ipswich Town Women a fortnight ago, backed up by a ground out 1-0 away victory at Cheltenham Town last Thursday.

London Bees currently sit bottom of the division with one point in eight games, having scored three and conceded 27. The U’s sit sixth on 13 points with four wins, one draw and three losses.

Last year the U’s put five past the Bees at the Hive on a Tuesday evening fixture.

Defender Shelly Provan spoke to us ahead of the game

“We're in a good spell at the moment. I think we've got some positive momentum going into the game and it's just been really positive. The last two games we’ve found our form, we’ve found relationships on the pitch and confidence is high.

“I think that confidence comes from winning in different ways. I think we've had to fight for the last game at Cheltenham for sure. The way the girls worked together with the different ages that we have, the youngsters we have in the group, we showed a real mature performance.

“I think that's a huge difference to the way maybe we were finishing games at the start of the season, so we can take huge confidence from that as well.

Shelly is a third way through her 26^th season playing Women’s football

“I still love playing and I think being at a club like this is encouraging me to play as long as I can. As long as I'm still enjoying it, I'm enjoying the group that I'm in, the staff that I'm around and the club that I'm at then there's no reason why I can't keep playing, so I’ll see how long I can go for!

“London Bees have made huge strides since last season and that's something we need to be aware of. They've got threats going forward and that's something we'll plan for but I think one of the huge differences in us is that we've been concentrating on ourselves more than the opposition in the last couple of games.

“I think going into that game, we've got to focus on our strengths and how we can get a result from the game.

Match Reports

Women Win In London

London Bees 1-4 OUWFC. Match Report

4 February 2024

Oxford United Women earned a comfortable away victory over London Bees this afternoon, with a brace from Jenna Legg and a goal each for Kate Wiseman and Zoe Barratt sealing three points on the road.

The U’s put the Bee’s goal under siege for the first half an hour, but the North London side did well to prevent Oxford from making the breakthrough. Barratt sent a half volley into the side netting followed by a strike from close range blocked off the line.

Then, just after the half hour mark the U’s found the lead that had been coming. Barratt drove down the right and forced a good save from Webber, but the ball fell kindly to Legg who took her time and found the bottom corner.

They made it two quickly after, with Wiseman finishing calmly into the bottom corner in the 38^th minute.

Jaime Gotch replaced Nicola Gibson at half time and the U’s found their third ten minutes after the restart. Legg doubled her tally for the day, reacting quickest in the box as the ball fell from a free kick, and lashing her strike into the net to put the result beyond doubt.

Legg almost had a hat-trick within the hour, heading Wiseman’s pinpoint free kick just over the bar but it was Bees who scored next. Breaking away with speed, the ball found Tiana Nee-Chambers who slotted past Paris Sercombe to deny United a clean sheet.

Lacy Liggett, Vitaliia Budaieva and Sarah King replaced Izzy Cook, Ellie Noble (making her second debut for the Yellows) and Legg.

It was, however, a comfortable victory, sealed by Barratt getting the goal she deserved. Legg slid the U’s number 9 in in the 86^th minute and she rounded the keeper and placed the ball into an empty net to make it 4-1 and wrap up the three points.

A seventh consecutive league victory to take them up into third place going into a massive game at home to Portsmouth next Sunday.

LINEUP: Sercombe, Provan, Gibson (Gotch, 45), Jenkins, Oliver, Wiseman, Burridge, Noble (Budaieva 65), Legg (King 90), Barratt, Cook (Liggett 65)

Report by Billy Lawrence, photos by Darrell Fisher

Match Reports