By Will Taylor & Hywel Fuller
In a seven goal thriller the University of South Wales’ Women’s firsts were beaten by Cardiff Met.
The game kicked off more than 10 minutes late, with the Cardiff Met staff not happy about USW fielding in their eyes “ineligible players who weren’t on the team sheet”.
This meant the game started with a bad temper, with a few off the ball shoves and both teams committing a lot of fouls.
This feisty stay was calmed in the 7th minute when Cardiff Met’s Elianna Chavez converted a great ball across the box from Freya Gwynne put them 1-0 up.
Met dominated the half for the most part, with USW having a rare outlet through energetic winger Rhianne Oakley, who features for Swansea City’s Ladies. A rare opportunity to break on the counter for USW ended with a magnificent solo run from Chloe Chivers and a powerful shot pushed onto the bar and out for a corner by goalkeeper Annabel Sweeney.
South Wales’ best chance of the half came from Chivers once again with a driving run forward, forcing another great save from the keeper, before Oakley slipped and missed the rebound.
USW were eventually made to regret their missed chances in the 33rd minute with a great header from Cardiff Met’s number 9, Ellie Preece from a corner putting the away side 2-0 up, which you couldn’t argue they didn’t deserve.
Preece then doubled her tally four minutes before the interval with a clinical finish just inside the box, after a precise counter attack from USW hitting the post, leaving USW goalkeeper Klaudia Wojkyczko, of Cardiff City ladies, with no chance.
Following a few key changes at half time, most noticeably in defence and the goalkeeping positions, the momentum of the game started to change to USW’s favour.
The first breakthrough came in the 52nd minute when a delicious through ball by Oakley was calmly finished by Chivers who slotted past the Cardiff Met goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation.
With USW now playing the better of the football it was only a matter of time before a second goal was scored.
In the 65th minute a long ball over the top of the Cardiff Met defence was latched upon by USW Number 7 Oakley, and due to the hesitation of the Cardiff Met goalkeeper Annabel Sweeney she was able to finish with a cheeky lob over the goalkeeper.
However, USW were not able to gain anymore momentum from that point with Cardiff Met doing well to wrestle back some sort of control of the game. This was laid bare when Preece was able to capitalise and slide the ball past the goalkeeper to complete her hat trick after some wayward defending from the USW backline.
With the game now looking out of reach for USW there was to be some unexpected late drama as they managed to grab a goal in the 87th minute, which was a carbon copy of their second, with a long ball being played over the top of the Cardiff Met defence and Oakley being there to slide the ball coolly past an again hesitant goalkeeper.
With the game finishing 3-4 to Cardiff Met, one team can be very pleased and say job well done with the other feeling a missed opportunity due to their missed chances.