A late flurry of goals seals the deal for Luton Town Ladies 1st XI

Luton Town Ladies 1st XI had a tense and exciting match versus Welwyn 2s this Halloween weekend, following a week's break and well-earned rest over half-term. The sun was shining and weather was mild, leaving the girls in good spirits that the game was going to be a good one.

Luton started off strong, however within about 10 minutes Welwyn began to take control of the game, intercepting passes and charging through Luton's defenders with a scary regularity. As the half continued, Luton lost their way somewhat, paving the way for Welwyn to mount a series of charges at the Luton goal. There were some great clearances by the girls, however an unlucky lifted deflection from Luton defender Zoe Jackson opened the scoring for Welwyn.

The girls' struggle continued for the rest of the half, albeit with a few promising chances from Ayse Samiloglulari and Kate Starkey that were unable to find their way home. After a half-time pep talk from guest coach Luke Titmus, the girls headed back onto the pitch confident that they could turn their fortunes around. Not long after the restart, however, came another strong attack from Welwyn and, whilst goalkeeper Tamara Clark made a fantastic save of the initial strike, she was unable to block the rebound, leaving Luton 2-0 down.

It was after this that Luton began to find their feet more, and a number of successive short corners ensued. Strikes from Suzanne Starkey and Clare Philby were blocked by the Welwyn keeper, as were rebound attempts from Becca Blanchett and Chelsea Wright. Despite this, the girls kept pushing and, in the 55th minute, were finally successful when a strike from Charlotte Prickett found its way past the keeper and into the goal, the scoreline now at 2-1.

A fantastic interception by Charlotte Dunham immediately after the restart led to another charge at the Welwyn circle and, after beating several players on her own, a swift cross by Dunham found the stick of a diving Ashley Masukusa, who managed to slot the ball between the keeper's legs from the P-spot only minutes after Luton's first went in.

With the score now sitting at 2-2 and victory in sight, Luton had a renewed fight in them. In almost the exact same way as before, Masukusa intercepted a Welwyn pass immediately upon the restart, and the girls were soon attacking the opposition's circle again. A brilliant series of passes found Prickett once more, who sent home her second goal of the game. Within the space of less than 10 minutes, Luton's fortunes had changed from losing 2-0 to winning 3-2, and with less than 10 minutes until the final whistle, everyone's focus turned to consolidating the win and preventing Welwyn from clawing back any further goals. After a fantastic 10 minutes playing as a left forward, Prickett was moved back into her usual position as sweeper to block any attacks from the opposition in the final minutes of the game and, as the final whistle sounded, the cheers from the watching crowd were echoed by the girls as they realised that their epic comeback in the final quarter had won them the game.

Player of the match this week was an obvious choice of Charlotte Prickett, not only for her two goals but for also playing in every position (except goalkeeper!) throughout the game, and having a fantastic performance all round!

Next week sees the continuation of the #watchyour1s campaign as the ladies head to Blueharts for a 16:45 pushback, where they will be hoping to win their sixth game out of seven! Not one to be missed!