PRIDE IN CUP DEFEAT

Pride Park Ladies made the short trip to Ilkeston on Sunday for the Derbyshire FA Womens County Cup 2nd Round; our first County Cup game since the semi-final in December 2019 - to face Ilkeston Town Ladies of the East Midlands Regional League - one Tier above us in the football pyramid - and designated „tie of the round” by DCFA. In addition to being our first County Cup game in 3 years, the game also marked Annie Laight’s 50th appearance for the Pride.

The Pride made a decent start; Tash Allderidge having the first shot of the game - just wide - after 5 minutes. Both teams were probing and had shots without really troubling either keeper until just after the quarter hour, when Pride almost took the lead.

Summer Evans intercepted a goal kick, heading the ball into the channel to the left of goal and into the path of Beth Jones, who beat the defender and from the angle of the six yard box her shot was blocked by the 'keeper's foot and deflected into the centre of goal. Hannah Kwiatek running in from the right had her shot blocked by a desperate last ditch block by a defender, with the ball falling to Summer Evans who also had two attempts blocked before the ball was cleared.

Ilkeston’s bench saw this as a „wake up call” and the hosts responded, starting to have the better of possession and to create openings, and took the lead after 25 minutes, scoring a second after 34 minutes.

There was another very good opportunity for Pride after 40 minutes, when an Annie Laight free-kick from just inside our half was hit into the right hand channel for Beth Jones, and her lofted shot hit the foot of the far post.

To rub salt in, Ilkeston scored a third a minute before half time. They extended their lead 7 minutes after the restart, but the Pride continued to try to play their game and battled to create openings, and only two minutes later Hannah Kwiatek did well to beat the full back but couldn’t quite get the connection she wanted and her shot went wide.

Just after the hour Beth Jones worked a little space and hit a dipping left foot shot which the keeper did well to tip onto the crossbar and over.

Ilkeston had found their range and were proving clinical in front of goal, adding another two within a minute of each other with twenty minutes still to play.

Pride Park were now, literally, playing for pride and continued to push for what would be a deserved consolation goal. With fifteen minutes to go they went close when Tash Allderidge hit a cross shot from wide on the left and the goalkeeper was unable to hold it, but was able to turn round and grab the ball on the line. Three minutes later Beth Jones beat the last defender and the goalkeeper, but her effort was ruled out for an offence - what the offence was remains a mystery.

Then, only two minutes later, Beth was put through and in a race for the ball with the keeper it was a dead heat, the ball breaking to Millie Holmes who hit a lofted shot from twenty five yards that was headed off the line by a recovering defender. Ilkeston added another with five minutes to play.

Despite conceding seven goals, the defence actually stood up to the challenge and defended well and behind them Jade showed good positioning and handling. There was, rightly, no sense of deflation after the game and a justifiable sense that we had done ourselves justice against higher League opposition and there were both positives, and things we could learn, from the game.

Ilkeston’s quality on a very fast superb 4G surface proved just a little too much for us in the end but we competed well, showed our own qualities in spells, without getting the roll of the ball or the rub of the green with decisions - without affecting the result - although the scoreline did feel a little harsh after going so close on several occasions.

Our thanks to Ilkeston Town for a good game and their post match hospitality, and we wish them well in the County Cup and for the remainder of the season.

The result of this tie means we now enter the DCFA Womens Plate competition, and wait to see who we are drawn against and when the tie will be.

For those of our followers who were planning to follow the live Twitter commentary by Derbyshire FA and wondered where it was, we understand transport problems prevented the provision of the commentary.

The Pride return to League action next Sunday (27th) at Castle Donington, kick off at 1.30pm.