Sussex capitalise against Channel Island Jersey
Sussex County FA Women’s Representative side top the South group table of the Southern Counties Cup Competition after a commanding 6-0 victory over Jersey FA at Culver Road on Wednesday evening.
Sussex opened the scoring early on thanks to Jess Lewry, Teagan Ashley made it two shortly after and Sara Tubby bagged herself a first-half goal. Chloe Winchester got Sussex’s fourth and fifth with Ashley also earning herself a brace after scoring the sixth in the latter stages.
It took Karl Davy’s side just four minutes to go ahead as the hosts skipper Charlotte Young spotted and delivered a glorious pass over to the advancing Lewry. She beat her marker, composed herself and calmly slotted the ball under Jersey goalkeeper Sara Luce.
Danielle Rowe went close after linking up well with midfield partner Georgia Sandell, who fired from 30-yards out which was safely handled by Luce.
Moments after Sussex doubled the lead with Jess Burke doing all the leg work down the right flank - she burst clear from defence and looped a cross over to the far post for Ashley to pounce on and poke home into an empty net.
At this point Sussex had built momentum and were in total control as Sandell teed up Tubby who kept her cool and steered the ball round the onrushing Jersey keeper on nineteen-minutes.
Ten minutes later, substitute Winchester joined in on the action and bagged her first of the evening. Lewry powered forward with pace and fizzed a ball across the pitch to Suzanne Davies, she found Winchester to her left who dispatched her effort into the bottom left corner giving Luce no chance.
Opportunities continued to present themselves for the home side and the visitors were extremely busy in defence for what must have felt like a never ending first-half.
Once again Lewry was in the thick of the action for Sussex as she used her pace and burst clear down the left channel and floated a deep ball over to the far post, for Winchester to meet with a downward header, but she could not generate enough power to do further damage.
On the stroke of half-time, Ashley tried her luck from twenty-yards out; she struck a fierce arrow of a shot which luckily for Luce landed directly in her gloves keeping it at a 4-0 deficit for the visitors at the break.
The second-half continued in a similar fashion to the first, Winchester had the first chance on forty-eight minutes, after Davies unselfishly squared the ball to here just inside the eighteen-yard box; she then riffled a powerful strike which was denied with a superb acrobatic save by Luce.
However, a minute later on the clock and Winchester this time made it count after producing almost a carbon copy of her previous effort. She killed the ball stone dead and struck the ball sweetly, placing her effort out of reach and past the Jersey number one.
Lewry almost got her second of the night after Young ploughed past a number of the opposition to slot in a neat pass for her team-mate who took it around Sophie Botterill, but was then greeted by the onrushing keeper who smothered the ball frantically.
With a quarter-of-an-hour to play Sussex made it six after a deep-free kick was swung in to the busy box and although Luce made a brilliant double-save, Ashley was there to touch the ball over the goal line.
Despite barely managing to move play out of their own half respectively, Jersey continued to plug away and worked tirelessly throughout the duration of the ninety-minutes, but Sussex proved to be far too strong for them.
Sussex have now made it three wins out of three having sailed past Kent with a 7-0 victory, 3-1 against the Royal Navy and last night’s result meaning they will face either Middlesex or the Army from the North group to determine who takes all in the Southern Counties Cup Competition!
Manager Karl Davy was pleased about the result and in particular his side’s performance throughout the season: “Since I have coached women’s football around Sussex, the abundance of talent that the county has is refreshing and it has been a headache for me to pick my squads.
“Being able to select the players we want, and for it all to come together was what I was expecting, because of their talents and fair do’s to the players, they have done themselves and the County proud!”
(A selection of photographs can be found on Facebook - courtesy of Simon Roe Photography)
Stats: (Sussex-Jersey)
Goals: 6-0; Shots: 17-2; Shots-on-target: 9-0; Corners: 9-0; Fouls: 2-4; Offside: 2-0; Yellow cards: 0-0; Red cards: 0-0.
Sussex: Graves, Burke, Ward, Rowe, Young (c), Russell, Lewry, Sandell, Tubby, Davis, Ashley.
Subs: Younger, Wilde, Carter, White, Winchester.
Jersey: Luce, S. Botterill, Spinola, Sundby, Muirhead, J. Botterill (c), Ruth, Sylva, Trachy, Cullen, Corbett.
Subs: Tierney, Melim.
Match report by Natalie Clarke.