Luton Town Ladies 1st XI v Potters Bar

Luton's game against Potters Bar was a frustrating affair with the home side once again knowing that if they had taken their chances they would have claimed all 3 points. After a slow start with Bar keeping them pinned into their own 23 Luton started to get into their flow and put together some purposeful attacks. They therefore went into the break disappointed that they had not been able to pull ahead, but determined that they could do better in the second half.

Unfortunately for Luton it would not be long before Potters Bar were awarded a penalty stroke when a defender somehow managed to clear the ball off the line with the wrong side of her stick. Keeper Sharna Gough could do nothing to stop the well placed strike from entering the net and thus Luton found themselves 1-0 down, very much against the run of play.

Luton stepped up their game, but despite several penalty corners and encampment in the oppositions half for most of the second period the seemingly perpetual problem of being unable to get the small orange ball between the big white sticks looked like it would haunt them yet again.

Luton's efforts were not helped when Captain Emma Whitehall earned herself a green card. After being illegally chopped at whilst passing two Potters Bar defenders the ball ran loose and Whitehall went in, knocking it away beautifully from another opposition player. Had her stick been in her hand at the time it would have gone down as a super tackle, however as the essential implement had left that appendage a fraction of a second earlier it was deemed to be unfair and the umpire awarded the midfielder a 2 minute break from the game.

When Suzanne Starkey passed a well weighted ball towards Charlotte Dunham who was free on the left hand side of the circle, time seemed to stop still for the onlookers as Dunham lifted her stick to perform her trademark first time shot. In this situation there really are only two outcomes a) The stick swings through with absolutely no danger of it making any sort of contact with the ball at all, b) The contact is a peach and the ball fires like a rocket into the net. Fortunately for Luton it was the latter that took place on this occasion, with a deflection off a defender's stick on route helping the ball past the keeper.

With renewed verve Luton put in a final push to try and ensure that the final scoreline would be representative of their performance, however it was just not to be and the game would end all square, Potters Bar 1 - Luton 1.

Player of the match could quite easily have gone to Charlotte Dunham for the superb strike that saved a point, however it was actually goalkeeper Sharna Gough who received the accolade with a strong performance in the Luton goal by the up and coming talent. This weeks Mare Of The Match award went to Charlotte McKinnon who caused much hilarity when she tripped over in defence unceremoniously dumping the opposition striker over the top of her as she fell.