Brand new out of the box Darlaston, travelled to Nuneaton for their first ever game, to take on an established strong Nuneaton side on a heavy pitch and in horrendous wet conditions, despite this both sides started sprightly

Darlaston Ladies looked nervous for the first 10 minutes mainly because a number of the starting XI hadn’t played with each other before. A couple of early chances fell early on to the Darlo front line, but these were squandered by being put over the bar, Nuneaton came close with a low shot forcing Darlaston’s keeper Kelly Walker into a dive, low to her left to keep the scores level.

The deadlock was broken by the visitors, Darlaston striker Sarah Lojko scored direct from a corner, her curling effort beat the home sides keeper.

Taking the lead seemed to relax and give the visitors the confidence boost they needed, Darlaston began to push on more, after skipper Shani Fieldhouse moved into centre midfield and the visitors became stronger.

Chelsea Fellows put through Lojko and with her speed and perfectly placed shot past the Nuneaton goalkeeper. Nuneaton played some nice football in the middle of the park, but it fell apart in the attacking third of the pitch, because that final ball was missing the quality, Darlaston added a third just before the half time interval

The visitors started the new half as they finished the first one, goals came thick and fast, the best goal of the day was a 25-yard drive from Lauri Alexander, with her back to goal and turning sweetly to place in the top right hand corner.

Darlo dominated the the second half, however Nuneaton did show some spirit, but all attempts were dented by the visitors strong defence of Keisha Sasa, Asheigh Simpson, Drew Harris and Fellows made it difficult, the home side never gave up. Winger Dionne Mckee with her speedy runs set up another goal and unlikey not to score herself, Levi Cheadle was a little unfit but no doubting her ability and placed the ball anywhere she wanted.
The strong midfield of Laura Avery and Sara Carter were outstanding.

At the final whistle Darlaston Ladies finished the game with a 9-0 win, a great start to their time in Darlaston in colours.

Player of the Match was awarded to Sara Tink Carter

The team management of Dave Ball and Scott Mckee were very proud of the side and impressed with the work rate of everyone who played, and Scott Mckee said “By the end of the second half it looked like the girls had played together for a while”,

Next Week Darlaston Ladies are on their travels again, this time more local as they take on Sporting Khalsa Reserves. Kick-off is 3 pm

Darlaston Ladies would like to thank Team and players sponsors S Bayliss Roofing, West Midlands Construction along with training kit and tracksuit sponsors Barhale.

We are still on the lookout for players and are looking for one or two quality players to join the up and coming side. Please contact Joint Manager Scott 07809636160 for further information.