A second-half strike from Holly Manders was enough to give Oxford United Women a 1-0 win over third-placed AFC Bournemouth Women and end the Cherries remarkable run of 59 games – over two-and-a-half seasons – without defeat.
Played in torrential conditions, both sides adapted well and produced an entertaining end-to-end game full of high quality.
The first half produced few chances for either side, with Beth Wookey the busier of the keepers, gathering a tame effort from Jenna Markham and shortly afterwards doing well to keep out Georgia Wilson’s shot to preserve United’s clean sheet.
Oxford had a great chance to take the lead in the 53rd minute, when Maisy Barker picked up a loose ball and took it round the onrushing Erin Foley. However, the angle was too tight for Barker to shoot and her cross across the face of goal was too strong for Emma Thompson to make contact.
The U’s took the lead just after the hour. Manders gained possession and her shot from just inside the box was out of Foley’s reach and into the bottom corner to give United a priceless lead.
The visitors tried to hit back, with Wookey forced into a flying save to deny Amber Treweek.
United were dealt a blow two minutes from time when Nicole Barrett was shown a second yellow card, meaning the team had to navigate the ten minutes of stoppage time with just 10 players.
However, they managed the game superbly to deny Bournemouth any further sights of goal and were able to celebrate a huge win that will give the team a great confidence boost ahead of Sunday's Adobe WFA Cup tie against Charlton Athletic at the MGroup Stadium (2pm kick off).
After the game, United manager Liam Gilbert said: “I said to the girls after the Watford defeat that we wanted to see a reaction and that actions speak louder than words, and they’ve gone and done that today.
“The last 10 or 15 minutes, down to ten players, they had to really dig in and show a different side to ourselves, which I thought we did and we applied ourselves very well.
“As the game progressed, I thought we grew into it and we problem-solved so much better than we have done in the past few weeks, and I was so happy for the girls because that was a great shift tonight.”
Come along and support the team as they welcome Charlton on Sunday. Over 500 tickets have already been sold and they are still available at the turnstiles and online HERE.
UNITED: Wookey, Gibson, Provan (Bussey 79), Wiseman, Bedeau (Casley 80), Barrett, Thompson (Trinder 90+7), Jenkins, Richardson, Barker, Manders (Kendell 90+3)