South West women

Callington FC ladies 1

Exeter City ladies 3

CALLINGTON’s nine game unbeaten run came to an abrupt end on Sunday as title-chasing Exeter City ran out deserving winners.

The game opened up with both sides defending well as neither side were able to fashion any clear chances in the early exchanges.

Town keeper, Sara Rowe, dived to confidently hold onto a long-range strike, before the best chance of the opening 10 minutes arrived at the other end of the pitch. Chloe Williams escaped City’s excellent centre-back Manfy Sharpe but found the young away goal-keeper harder to beat as she made a brilliant save to deny her when clean through on goal.

For the next 20 minutes there was little goal-mouth action as Callington’s efforts to utilise their front three strikers proved un-rewarding. However, Callington were looking as equally efficient in their own half, until on 30 minutes, City found space on the left-wing to cross into the box where an unmarked Georgie Barber-Gresham finished well from six yards.

Callington continued to work hard and compete across the whole pitch, and eventually got their rewards when just before the half-time whistle.

From a corner Gemma Farley swung the ball into the box, the ball fell to Chloe Williams towards the back post and the striker took two touches before drilling the ball into the far corner through a cluster of bodies.

Town were good value for their hard-fought 1-1 score-line at the interval, but the second half proved to be a different story.

 Exeter came out in the second half and straight from kick-off went on the front foot, attacking with pace and purpose. The inevitable goal came as Sophie Gillies’ clever glanced header wrong-footed the keeper before it flew into the far corner of the net to make it 2-1.

Unfortunately for the home side every ball up to their attacking players was dealt with efficiently by their two dominating centre-backs. Town shifted formation and posted Amy Hemingway and substitute, Grace O’Leary, to the wings. Despite a degree of improvement for Town, the away side hit the bar twice before they got a third goal to kill the game off. Rowe made a brilliant diving save but the rebound was fired home by substitute Carmen Morrison.     

Town manager Adam McPherson said: ‘They see themselves as title-contenders and with good reason, so we are not too disheartened to admit we lost to the better side on the day. We caught them off-guard a bit in the away fixture we won, but they came with their own game-plan and didn’t take us lightly. Considering we are newly promoted, to be pushing teams like this all the way is a credit to my players.’ 

Callington’s player of the match was shared between Tyler Matthews and Amy Hemingway.