Sittingbourne Women (H) - 17th December 2023

By David Hansen 

Margate Women take to the football pitch for the final time in 2023 as they take on Sittingbourne Ladies at Hartsdown Park in the South-East Counties Women’s Football League Premier Division, with the opportunity to put themselves within one point of Parkwood Rangers with games in hand.

This will be the 2nd time the teams have clashed this season and won’t be the final time the two teams will play as they face each other in the SECWFL Cup on the 7th of January at the Roman Stadium.

Sittingbourne come into the game off the back of a couple of quality wins in the league where they beat Maidstone United at home thanks to a double from Eleanor Walker. Most recently Sittingbourne beat London Road 2-1 at the Victory Academy, this time thanks to a brave from Sian Boswell.

Margate come into the game with a victory and a defeat in the league. The win came against Woodcoombe LFC at the Murston Rec Ground with goals from Paige Godden and Harri Chapman being enough to earn the three points.

Last time out Margate suffered their first home loss of the season at the hands of league leaders XL where the visitors earned a 3-1 at Hartsdown Park with league top scorer Gabriella Buddle-Smith adding to her tally.

Players to Watch:

Sittingbourne forward Sian Boswell has found the back of the net 8 times in the last four games meaning she is finding the net every 45 minutes over the last 4 games. She also finds herself 2nd in the SECWFL Premier Division top scorer charts with 15 goals.

Esmee Kew-Stroud is certainly one to watch as she is in superb form as she bagged a first half hat-trick against Deal Town in the Kent County Cup.

The match takes place at Hartsdown Park, and kick-Off is at 3:00PM with access possible from the side gate by the turnstiles, with adults £2 and concessions £1.

Women Storm To Convincing Win

Report by David Hansen

Margate Women ended 2023 with a bang as they swept aside Sittingbourne Ladies with a comfortable and commanding performance.

Sittingbourne had their best real spell of the game very early on as they looked to test stand in keeper Lily Kemp. The first of which was a ball sent down the right which was well cut out by Kemp at her near post and cleared away.

The 2nd chance for the visitors came from a free-kick in a dangerous area which Kemp did well to claim avoiding any real danger to her goal in the 1st half.

Margate would start to dictate the pace of the game and scored their 1st goal of the afternoon when Kew-Stroud showed excellent pace to get in behind and place her shot into the far corner scoring her 4th goal in two games.

The pick of the goals came in the 40th minute of the game when skipper Becca Slevin brought the ball down from around 30 yards and on the half volley fired the ball into the top left corner to double the lead before the break. The goal will be right up there as a goal of the season contender.

The interruption of half-time didn’t have an impact on the performance of the ‘Gate as they netted for the 3rd time of the afternoon. Slevin found herself in the right channel, very far from her normal position of holding midfield, where she whipped an inch perfect ball to the back post where an unmarked Abbey Luby was able to smack the ball into the net.

It wouldn’t be a Margate Women’s match without some lovely work from Rebecca Niblett, which came in the way of some perfectly time runs to beat the offside trap but, on each occasion, the keeper Fallon Minto-Hay did enough to distract Margate’s top scorer into firing just past the far post.

Margate would continue to have shots from the edge of the area, with Kew-Stroud and Harri Chapman being unable to add any more goals as they saw their strikes also go agonisingly wide of the post.

The final flash point of the game came very late on as Sittingbourne player Shannon Burden was shown a 2nd yellow card by the referee for a bad tackle leaving Sittingbourne with 10 players for the final five minutes.

The final whistle blew thus ending 2023 for Margate Women. The win leaves them in 5th place in the division with a chance to go 2nd in the new year and up to three games in hand.

Margate Women will return to action in 2024 when they take on Sittingbourne yet again at Woodstock Park in the SECWFL Cup on the 7th of January.

Lineup:

Kemp, Charman, Duff, Coltham-Lai, Slevin ©, Chapman, Greetham, Kew-Stroud, Scales, Godden, Niblett.

Substitutes:

Hall, Harrington, King, Luby, Speller

Goals:

Kew-Stroud 24’

Slevin 40’

Luby 57’

Opposition Player of The Match:

Paige Godden

Player of The Match:

Rebecca Slevin ©

Attendance:

45