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Wednesday 13 October 2004 FA Nationwide Women's Premier League, Southern Division
AFC Wimbledon
1
-
2
Chelsea Ladies
Match report
AFC WIMBLEDON LADIES 1 CHELSEA LADIES 2
Prior to Dons second half mauling of Ipswich last Sunday, the game at Chelsea was the ladies best performance of the season. Since that draw, Chelsea have still to drop another point in the League this season, whilst the Dons have continued to stutter with inconsistency.
In front of a decent sized crowd, both teams were certainly there for the win, and this was a fine spectacle of a game, spoilt only (from a home perspective) by the result.
Chelsea made their intentions clear from the start. As in the previous encounter, AFC Wimbledon tried to play the short passing game and Chelsea relied on the early ball over the top to their speedy strikers. As early as the third minute the League's leading scorer Nina Downham was clean through but denied by a good save by Lou Cooper, and after Gemma Hunt's acutely angled snap-shot from the edge of the box was smartly turned over the bar by Freya Lees, Chelsea went ahead in the 16th minute. Another ball over the top found Downham, and although her initial shot was blocked, Sam Jones was following up to side-foot home the loose ball from 20 yards past a wrong-footed Cooper. Downham was soon clean through again only to slice horribly wide, then Carly Hunt's header was cleared off the line before the Dons equalised on the half hour mark, Gemma Hunt breaking down the right and beating a defender to the line before crossing for Beth Sims to flick the ball in over Lees at the near post.
After the interval Jones sliced wide when well placed and Downham was well tackled by Elcome, then a Sims shot was tipped round the post and a Laura Smith shot flew inches over. Chelsea went back in front in the 76th minute when a through ball found Lisa Langrish and although her shot was half-stopped by Cooper it rolled agonisingly over the line and settled in the back of the net. Maria Bertelli's wicked free kick was fumbled around the post and a Keisha Ramos had a shot blocked by Lees and a long range effort from the same player skimmed a foot wide, but the best chance of an equaliser came in injury time when Bertelli flicked on Michelle Riley's lob to put Gemma Hunt clean through, but she fired her shot powerfully over the bar.
