Chesterfield Ladies were knocked out of the Women's FA Cup on Sunday afternoon following a 1-0 defeat to Wem Town Ladies in the third and final qualifying round at the Butler Sports Ground.
The visitors won a penalty midway through the second half but Amy Pashley's spot-kick was superbly saved before the hosts broke the deadlock ten minutes later. While the Blues were devastated to not reach the first round proper of the competition for the first time in 12 years, they can certainly seek solace in the fact that they gave a team one tier above them an extremely competitive game and that they had the chances to secure a cup upset.
The entire game was an extremely tight affair that could have gone either way. The Blues almost made the perfect start when Georgina Williams was given space to fire an effort on target from 15 yards out but her rapid effort was palmed away by the Wem goalkeeper to concede a corner.
The hosts almost took an early lead themselves when a 25 yard free-kick was expertly tipped over the bar by Lucy Paley in goal. Six minutes later, Chesterfield Ladies showed their threat from set pieces when Kel Fidler's free-kick from 25 yards out was tipped around the post.
Some heroic blocks from the Blues defence kept the game level at 0-0 midway through the first half. An in-swinging Wem corner caused chaos inside the penalty area and Chesterfield did superbly to make multiple interventions to deny every chance and half-chance that was thrown at them in a quick game of pinball.
The best opportunity of the first half for the visitors arrived in the 33rd minute. A right-wing delivery unexpectedly looped over the Wem keeper's head and the ball fell to Georgina Williams with the goal at her mercy. However, it appeared that Williams wasn't ready for the ball to arrive so soon and the ball ricocheted off her and back to the very grateful goalkeeper's hands. It was a golden opportunity for the Blues to take a surprise lead.
With five minutes of the first half remaining, Wem won a free-kick in a dangerous area. The deadlock remained unbroken though as a close-range header from a Wem midfielder flashed narrowly wide of the post.
The second half carried on in much the same vein as the first 45 minutes with the game balanced on a knife edge.
Lucy Paley did extremely well to prevent the Shropshire outfit from taking the lead in the 58th minute. A lovely, threaded ball split the Chesterfield defence and allowed a Wem forward to have a clean run through on goal with just the goalkeeper to beat. The hosts were scuppered though by Paley as she surged off her line to claim the ball from the striker's foot just as she was about to pull the trigger.
The biggest opportunity of the game for the Blues arrived in the 68th minute when the visitors won a penalty after Shannon Purdy was blatantly fouled by the Wem keeper. Amy Pashley stepped up to take the spot-kick and struck the ball very firmly but the opposition keeper made a superb save to deny Mike Noon's side.
The rollercoaster nature of the game showed no sign of stopping as Millie Standen came to Chesterfield's rescue just two minutes afterwards. A left-wing cross into the penalty area from Wem caused a mix-up between Paley and a Blues defender and the ball was seemingly about to roll over the goal line before Standen flew to the goal line just in time to boot the ball away from danger.
Heartbreak soon followed though for the visitors. A right-wing delivery from the hosts in the 78th minute looped over the stretched arms of Lucy Paley and Katie Doster was on hand to hook the ball home from close range to finally break the deadlock.
Wem almost killed the game off completely with five minutes of normal time remaining but Paley once again impressed with an excellent point-blank save to stop a close-range effort. Chesterfield Ladies threw everything they could in the search for a late equaliser but the goal just would not come. Substitute Hannah Baker came closest to securing a dramatic finale when her long-range effort in the 88th minute was fired on target but ultimately straight at the goalkeeper.
Naturally, all the players and staff were totally gutted with the result but there were many positives to take from this game against higher-level opposition. A special mention has to be given at the end for Lucy Paley who was brought in as an emergency goalkeeper due to an injury picked up by Esme Naylor only the day before this cup tie. Paley stepped up to the big occasion and performed excellently over the whole 90 minutes.
Chesterfield Ladies team: Paley, Cook (Baker 46), Jebb-Geer, Anderson, Warren (Frances-Creaser 72), Pashley, Purdy (Townsend 83), Fidler, Standen, Williams, Camfield. Unused subs: Pascoe, Phillips.
Mike Noon Quotes:
"I'm definitely proud of the players today. We were up against a team in the league above us. It was a really good game to be involved with. It was end to end in the first half with both teams doing everything they could to get that first goal of the match. It was a tough challenge as we want to be playing at the level that Wem play in. It was good for us to test ourselves against a team who are in that league and I thought we carried ourselves very well. We're all a bit gutted as we felt we'd done enough in the second half to win the game. We created a few good chances in the second half. We missed a penalty and then they went on to take the lead - it's tough to take but that's football. I think we can take a lot of positives out of this. We know now we can compete with teams in the league above and that's really pleasing to see."
"Lucy Paley was brilliant. She's not a natural goalkeeper. We've got injuries to all three of our goalkeeping options. Lucy kindly stepped in when she was asked to go in goal yesterday. I thought you wouldn't have noticed that she isn't a natural goalkeeper. I thought she was absolutely outstanding. She's pulled off a few really good saves. They whipped some dangerous crosses in that she came out and claimed. Massive credit to her for doing a job for the team."
"They scored late on and I thought we responded pretty well to that. We created another couple of half chances from that point onwards. We just couldn't find a clear, open chance to get a proper shot away. The players applied themselves really well today...for large parts of the second half, I think the ball was mostly in the opposition's half which, for a team from the league below to come and do that away from home, is really pleasing to see. We now need to carry that into the league...we can use this now as a little kick-on to say we've shown we can play at this level - now let's go out and make sure we get there."
"Our next game is against Coalville Town in the league cup and they're a league below us. It will be another different challenge for us to face. It will be a good opportunity for some players who haven't played today to get a run-out then. We want to go and win the game and progress as far as we can in that competition as well. We'll look forward to that now. We're disappointed today but we'll dust ourselves down and get ready for next Sunday's game."
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