Withey spot-on to earn point for Women’s Under-19s against United
Substitute Lexi Withey netted a penalty 14 minutes from time to rescue a point for our Women’s Under-19s at home to Manchester United on Wednesday afternoon.
Introduced shortly after the hour mark with the team trailing 2-1, the midfielder won and converted a spot-kick to ensure honours ended even at 2-2 as we built on last week’s impressive 3-2 win at Birmingham City with a useful share of the spoils in the Professional Game Academy (PGA) League Division One.
We’d earlier led through Rania Oukriss, who remains eligible to play for our Academy alongside her dual registration arrangement with Portsmouth, but United turned the game around via goals either side of the break from Madison Vernon and Martha Allington, the latter also from the spot.
First team players Jess Naz, Kirsty Hanson and Ella Morris were seen watching on at Hotspur Way alongside promising youngster Jhanaie Pierre, but United had the better of the early chances with Allington a constant threat. She squandered a number of good opportunities while Sophie Jackson was called upon to make a good save, but it was Matt Sharman’s side who took the lead on 43 minutes, Oukriss taking a touch and hammering home after a slick ball in from the left by Amie Bush. However, within 60 seconds the visitors were level as a mix-up at the back allowed Vernon to pounce and restore parity going into the break.
Poppy Neill cut in from the left but fired wide while Eloise Summers-Mee had an effort ruled out for offside in the wake of a free-kick at the start of the second half, but United took the lead on 57 minutes when Allington was fouled in the area before getting back up to send Jackson the wrong way from 12 yards.
We battled well, though, and on 76 minutes our persistence was rewarded when Withey fired home a penalty of her own after being brought down in the area. We almost won it right at the end, only for Ruby Mace’s powerful header to smash off the crossbar.
“Overall, it was a fantastic performance from the team,” reflected coach Matt afterwards. “From minute one to minute 90 there was a lot of consistency with our in-possession behaviours, I thought we controlled the game really well in moments, defensively out of possession we caused them problems and managed their rotations really well and ultimately we got some chances on goal from it, so I’m really proud of the players and it’s a well-deserved point in the end.”