Peterborough United Women Under 23s battled to a 5-4 loss against Rugby Borough Women Development at Kilsby Lane in the opening league fixture of the FA Women’s National League Reserves Midlands Division, with a late turnaround from the hosts cancelling out strikes from Georgie Oliver, Kendal O’Connor, Emily Meli and Alice Akinyemi.
It was Posh who came out the starting blocks the quickest and opened the scoring in the sixth minute as Oliver struck from distance into the bottom left corner. The hosts equalised just after the quarter hour mark before taking the lead in the 24th minute.
Just before the hour mark, the Under 23s levelled as O’Connor fired into the roof of the net from the edge of the box. Posh continued on the front foot and regained the lead before half time as Ellie Curson sent Meli through on goal who slotted into the bottom left corner from close range.
Posh extended their lead immediately after the restart as O’Connor advanced on the wing before delivering a cross towards the back post, Akinyemi latched on to score Posh’ fourth of the game.
Rugby responded and reduced the deficit in the 53rd minute. The hosts continued to pressurise Posh and levelled following a corner, before taking the lead with minutes remaining on the clock.
The Posh Women Under 23s will next be action on Sunday as they host Notts County Reserves in their second league match of the campaign.
Manager, Michael Allsebrook, spoke after the game: “Whilst the scoreline isn’t ideal, the performance over the 90 minutes from the team was pleasing. Rugby are a dangerous side and will no doubt do well this season and cause teams problems. It was an end-to-end game with neither side closing up the pitch well enough. The game was fine margins but today we were on the wrong side of it. It’s a day where they’ve taken one more chance than we have, we’ve made an extra mistake and lost but that’s football ultimately. The work rate, effort and desire was there from the girls today. We are still trying to get to where we want to be and stamp our identity but we wouldn’t have put in that performance six weeks ago. The strides made from the group are there.
“Alice (Akinyemi) had a good game today. She was in and out of the team last year but has shown from the start of pre-season a real hunger and desire to do well. She thoroughly deserved player of the match today and her goal; she’s only getting started now. We’ve got a good group here with lots of depth and a real competition for places.”
Posh XI: Dellar, Richards-Reeves, Sands (sub 46min, Iyawa), Podd, Curson, Gee, Moore (sub 70min, Riley), O’Connor (sub 62min, Smith), Oliver, Meli, Akinyemi. Unused Subs: King, Cooper.
Half-Time: Rugby Borough Women Development 2-3 Peterborough United Women Under 23s
Full-Time: Rugby Borough Women Development 5-4 Peterborough United Women Under 23s