HWFC Climb The Table
Hampstead Women continued their rich vein of goalscoring with an impressive 8-1 hammering of West London based Pittshnager Lane FC.
Another important victory for HWFC was inspired by goals from Lucy Rebuck and Kate Freeman scoring seven of the eight goals bagged in this home match. Rebuck took her total goals to 14 this season with Freeman’s season tally rising to 10 by the end of the match.
Only careless finishing stopped Hampstead scoring in the first ten minutes. The breakthrough finally came in the 23rd minute with Rebuck latching onto a through ball and firing past the goalie from 15 yards. Once again Hampstead took the initiative and within five minutes it was 2-0, Rebuck and Freeman connecting again after some great play in midfield by Benjamin & Bard (making her debut) with Rebuck finishing off the swift move from close range.
Pittshanger could not get the ball out of their own half and after some excellent work on the right hand side by Berks, Caplin spread the ball across the park and beautifully found Freeman who ran onto the pass and stroked the ball into the top corner making it 3-0.
Sustaining the pressure and sensing a big victory Hampstead pressed forward. Once again Bard & Benjamin combined well in midfield and after a clinical pass through the defence found Rebuck on the edge of the area. With defenders and goalkeeper charging at her, the 15-year old coolly lifted the ball over the goalkeepers head and found the back of the net.
Pittshanger started to move the ball around now and a lucky deflection from a Hampstead goal kick let in the Pittsahnger forward who took her chance and placed the ball to the left of the Hampstead keeper.
The goal could have taken the wind out of Hampstead’s sails but instead it drove them on to get two more goals before half time. Freeman struck again after linking up well with Caplin on the right hand side and Dani Benjamin made it 6-1 when she arrived in the box for a corner and made sure the ball was driven home after Roberts had done well from the initial kick.
The second half offered a hatful of chances to the North London Team and but for six brave saves from the Pittshanger keeper the scoreline would have been in double figures. It was Rebuck in the 74th minute and Freeman five minutes later who both scored late on and to ensure that Hampstead went away with a big victory.
HWFC coach said after the match: “Today was quite a tough game despite the score line. We were made to work hard by Pittshanger and had to dig really deep to create chances. Once we scored though it was really one way traffic.
“Rebuck & Freeman have really built a prolific partnership this season and they both played with real poise & maturity today.” When asked about the midfield work rate he said: “Benjamin had another superb game working tirelessly in the middle of the park & popping up to score the 6th goal & Bard made a very good debut for the team. It was an important win for us as it made a real positive difference to our goal difference and at the end of the season every goal will count in this league.”
Hampstead play away against Waltham Abbey FC next week and if they can win this match will place them 3rd in the table as we approach the seasonal break.
HWFC train at Mill Hill Power League on a Thursday Evening (8.00pm – 10.30pm) and play matches in the Greater London League on Sunday Morning. We are very keen to recruit a new goalkeeper for the rest of this season.
