Watford Ladies attained their first point of the season at home to Millwall Lionesses on Sunday, as the latter were able to continue their impressive unbeaten run.
Chances were few and far between throughout the match, with the greatsest falling to Watford's Kate Natkiel and Millwall's Lillie Billson respectivley.
The home side came into the game on the back of three successive league defeats, while the Lionesses visited the Berkhamsted ground undefeated in the Women’s Super League Two. The visitors made three changes from their win against Durham Women as their new signing, Carlton, came in for Ciara Sherwood while Ayane replaced Albert up front. Watford also made three changes, looking to record their first points of the current campaign.
The Hornets were dominant in the opening exchanges, and had the best of the early opportunities during the first game at their home ground this year, having played in front of a 1,102 strong crowd at Vicarage Road last weekend.
Emily Heaslip, stand in captain due to top scorer Megan Wynne’s absence, saw a long range effort sail just wide of the post before creating the first real chance of this fixture. Given a free-kick on the corner of the penalty area, the 21-year-old caught out the opposition defense by playing the ball low towards the feet of Kim Farrow. Millwall 'keeper Sarah Quantrill parried the cross but did well to save the following effort from Farrow.
It took 20 minutes for Shayla Burgess, in for the injured Rowlands, to be tested in the Watford goal. Lillie Billson’s run was found down the left hand side and she latterly crossed low towards an onrushing Megan Goss. The midfielder always look second best as Burgess smothered her effort from close range, but promising signs for Millwall as they looked to stamp their authority on the game.
Possession remained even for the majority on the first-half with free-kicks, corners and wayward strikes going for both sides. The most significant chance in the remaining minutes came to the Lionesses, and it arrived in similar fashion to the chance prior. Babajide was finding luck on this left hand side once more and, after some quick footwork to enter to box, found Billson unmarked. However, the former Liverpool and Arsenal woman found herself off balance and the subsequent volley was sliced over the bar.
The referee then blew his whistle to send both teams down the tunnel after an evenly contested first 45 minutes. Managers John Salomon and Dan Milnar would have both been happy and quietly confident after their team’s performance before the interval.
The Golden Girls kicked-off to restart the match after the break, with no changes for either side taking place at half-time. Millwall pressure dominated the proceeding minutes, as the South London outfit penned in their Hertfordshire counterparts.
Teenager Babajide, who scored once in four appearances before this, tested Burgess, who has played every league game after joining from Reading. A clear opportunity came to Ayane moments later. The Chelsea loanee found herself collect the ball from a Watford clearance 15-yards out, but yet another volley was poorly taken and a goal kick was given.
Kim Farrow made way for Dawn Mallet with just over an hour gone, as Salomon’s management team looked to turn one point into three. The latter’s impact was far from instant but she made sure she had an impact in the fixture’s greatest opportunity so far. After winning the ball on the halfway line, it was worked to Mallet with time to burst towards the box. Showing composure, she calmly picked out Kate Natkiel with space in the area, however, the club’s longest serving player dallied on the ball and the resulting effort was blocked away.
Looking for redemption, Natkiel produced a terrific opportunity for herself with 15 left to play. After a tremendous cross field pass from substitute Mallet, Natkiel held the ball up well and showed great strength to brush off her marker. Linking up well with the left-back, the Englishwoman cut inside Leanne Cowan with ease before unleashing a powerful strike that was well saved from Quantrill.
Renee Hector was brought on for Stacie Donnelly with eight minutes to go, but had to be withdrawn after just six minutes on the pitch due to sustaining a leg injury, causing a lengthy break in play. The striker was then replaced by Sasha Adamson.
Two minutes stoppage time was signalled by the officials, however the game went on for a further seven minutes due to the injury. Both teams went for the win but neither could break the deadlock unlike the last meeting between the two, where a last minute penalty secured the victory for the Lionesses.
A crowd of 240 witnessed an entertaining scoreless draw at Broadwater, a result not many could argue with. The away side continue their unbeaten start to the season but continue their record of not converting draws into wins, something Ciara Sherwood eluded to before the game. Speaking to exclusively to VAVEL, she claimed: “Against London Bees we had countless attempts at goal and we were not ruthless enough against Everton, it was a battle and we were unfortunate to concede a last minute goal.”
Speaking to VAVEL after the match, Watford boss John Salomon stated he was happy with the new system the managment team have implemented on the team:
“We reviewed the first few games and decided to go with a new shape, because we feel it would suit us better. It worked against Reading in terms of restricting them but it was tough to roll it out for the first time against a good team like them.
“We have 17 days to work on it since then and I think you can see today how it works for us. The players are enjoying it and through that we are defending more compactly. We are creating more opportunities as well, so it was really important to lay the foundations today; getting that first point, getting that first clean sheet and this gives us a big foundation to build on.”
He went on to say: “You can see it suits some of the players and their style of play. I think it is something we looked at doing before but you have to to have all the players in all the key positions to make this work.
There are some formations where you can get away with putting a player in a different position but in this one you need to not just have the technical and the tactical attributes, but the physical side too.”
When asked on whether the side can get the goals to win the game after a keeping on the opposition, he said:
“We created more chances today than we have done in our previous three league games, so you can see we are starting to create more chances. We had two or three very good chances today and we should have won the game.
It wasn’t to be today but the most important thing is that we laid the foundations to build from, and you can see from today’s attacks that the goals will start to come.”
For Watford Ladies, the club will be happy to record their first point of the season against a young and energetic Millwall side. The former face Everton at home next Sunday while the Lionesses play Durham Women next time out.