Millwall 1 Everton Ladies 1: Jess King salvages drawLate leveller earns Everton a point
Everton FC Ladies 2015
Millwall 1 Everton 1Midfielder Jess King climbed off the bench to earn Everton Ladies a valuable away point against Millwall Lionesses.
Rosella Ayane looked to have sent Millwall on their way to a first FA Women’s Super League 2 victory of the season with a debut goal, until King blasted in a late leveller.
After a feverish opening from Everton, which saw Claudia Walker crash a shot off the underside of the crossbar and Lucy Whipp denied by onrushing goalkeeper Sarah Quantrill, the Lionesses pushed forward and had the best chance of the half.
Rewarded a free-kick on 33 minutes just outside Everton’s area, goalkeeper Megan Walsh reacted quickly to Lillie Billson’s fierce effort, but she could only push it into the path of Dionne Lennon, who turned the rebound wide from six yards out.
The visitors were left to rue missed chances after the break when a mix up at the back on 62 minutes allowed Ayane through.
Defender Lindsay Johnson was unable to move out the way of Walsh’s clearance, which struck her in the chest and the loose ball fell for Ayane, signed on loan this week from Chelsea, to bundle into an empty net.
But, after the Millwall defence failed to deal with a late free-kick, King blasted in the equaliser.
Everton built on their opening day league win over Aston Villa with victory over Bristol Academy in the FA Women’s Cup, but were relieved to be heading back to Merseyside with a point.
Everton head coach Andy Spence said: “We expected to put on a much better show than we did.
“We created some good opportunities but I can’t honestly say we deserved to win. A draw is a fair result.
“Our performances haven’t been brilliant. We’ve shown a lot of heart and desire but we need more sustained spells of quality. There have been splashes of it, but we’re capable of a lot more than we’re showing at the present time. We need to sustain those periods of quality for longer in the game and put the opposition under more pressure.
“The key thing is we’re showing that we’re never out of games, but we were that much on top after ten minutes, that we shouldn’t have been in the position where we needed to scrap.
“We’ve got to focus on the quality of our work and getting the basics right and then not being so lacklustre in terms of our defending.
“We’ve got to get back to what we feel are our strengths as a team.”
Watch an FA Women’s Super League match near you, tickets available:
www.ticketstores.co.uk/fawslMillwall Lionesses (4-2-3-1): Quantrill; Cowan, Lennon, Butler, Strugnell; Fisk, Cole; Babajide, Billson, Goss (Douglas, 77); Ayane. Subs not used: Gibbs, Albert, Ali, Sherwood
Bookings: Billson (72), Cole (87)
Everton (4-1-4-1): Walsh; V.Jones, Johnson, Stewart, George; M.Turner (Williams, 64); Walker (Young, 52), K.Jones, Hinnigan (King, 75), D.Turner; Whipp. Subs not used: Maciver, Lea, Alexander
Bookings: none.
Att:135
Ref: C.Myatt
By David Prentice / Echo
