For Leeds women’s football 2nd team, it was a case of intense university rivalry in their match this week, as they faced Leeds Beckett Carnegie 3rd team.

After emphatically winning their last fixture and saving themselves from relegation, the Uni side were hopeful that they could transfer that performance to this game against a strong opponent and push further up the table. It certainly looked like a win was a real possibility when the game kicked off, with the Uni team immediately testing the Beckett defence and looking the more threatening.

This initial dominance paid off, as Sian Smith took advantage of Beckett’s shaky defence, breaking free to fire in a well-taken goal. However, with this 1-0 lead, the balance of play swung. The Leeds Beckett team finally kicked in and the game became an end to end affair with both sides coming close to adding to the score line.

However, Beckett’s pressure became greater and greater, and while Leeds defence held them at bay for some time, Beckett equalised and then took the lead in quick succession. The half time whistle blew on what had been an intriguing and well fought 45 minutes. Leeds Beckett continued to assert the pressure as soon as the 2nd half began and Uni found it hard to keep their play flowing. Nonetheless they still had a few good chances which could have changed the direction of the game in the favour of the Uni team.

Despite this, the Beckett side soon had their third goal. The Uni side continued to fight but with the result of the game effectively determined, Beckett got a fourth goal. The remaining 20 minutes of the game passed with little incident, and the final whistle confirmed the 4-1 scoreline in Beckett’s favour. Despite a valiant effort, the Leeds Uni team had failed to defeat their rival team.

Image courtesy of sport.leeds.ac.uk

 

Nancy Gillen