University of Cambridge 4

University of East Anglia 1

BUCS Midlands 2B League, Fitzwilliam Sports Ground, Oxford Road

The Cambridge University Association Football Club Women’s Blues (CUAFCW) produced 90 magisterial minutes of football this Wednesday to defeat the University of East Anglia Women’s Football Club (UEAWFC) 4–1. Although the fixture pitted first against second in the BUCS Midlands 2B division, the gulf in class went well beyond what the league table augured: the Blues’ near-flawless season reads six wins from six games, and they now enjoy an eight-point lead at the table’s summit.

After the early exchanges saw the two sides cancel each other out, Cambridge gradually started to gain an upper hand that they would not relinquish for the rest of the afternoon. Strong hold-up play from Xelia Mendes-Jones brought Zoe Cohen, Becca Hirst and Liz Ashcroft into promising positions and presaged the Cambridge dominance to come.

The breakthrough arrived midway into the first half. A scuffed goal-kick from UEA’s Alex Tibble was intercepted and allowed Mendes-Jones to scamper through one-on-one. Her dink over the keeper rebounded off the inside of the far post and somehow stayed out, but instead of cursing her luck, Mendes-Jones fought to tuck away the loose ball and give Cambridge a deserved lead.

The Light Blues gained further confidence and fluency, stroking the ball about pleasingly down the wings, with Ashcroft in particular the source of most of Cambridge’s good work and giving East Anglia’s Olivia L’etang no respite at left-back. Unsurprisingly, she was central to doubling the lead. More good interplay between Katy Edwards and Liz Ashcroft forced a corner out of the East Anglians, and the resultant set piece was dispatched via a thundering header from Ceylon Hickman.

Cambridge were now getting in behind the East Anglian backline regularly, and were almost out of sight before half time. Mendes-Jones managed to evade the offside trap to find herself through on goal: Tibble came out to meet her and clattered the centre-forward on the edge of the area, the referee only opting to brandish a yellow card thanks to some backtracking East Anglia defenders.

The visitors, although rattled, to their credit rallied on either side of half-time. Camilla Morgan had three shots on goal that were all dealt with by Cambridge’s Laura Bleehen, while the diminutive Jacki Zavala got on the ball more in midfield and helped to fashion some consistent pressure that Cambridge, marshalled by skipper Gerda Bachrati in defence, soaked up well.

Yet Cambridge were happy to restrict East Anglia to long-range efforts and strike on the counter-attack, which, with the fleet-footed trickery of Zoe Cohen in the middle and the menacing pace of Ashcroft and Daisy Luff down the flanks, was a fruitful strategy, especially as East Anglia held a higher line to try to get back into the game after half-time. Another devastating move led by Ashcroft down the right presented Mendes-Jones with a perfect cross, but her two efforts were well smothered by Tibble in the ensuing scramble.

Cambridge’s third goal epitomised their high press and work rate. Tibble’s goal-kick was woefully short again and was snapped up by the lurking Ashcroft, who kept her composure to set herself and delightfully loft the ball over the keeper for 3–0.

From then on Cambridge were in cruise control, showcasing confident and mature possession football that prised open the away side’s defence on countless occasions, effectively utilising Ashcroft and Luff’s intelligent runs.

East Anglia eventually replied, as Morgan’s looping effort from outside the area shook the crossbar and allowed Ella Turvil to slide the ball home to grab a consolation against the run of play.

However, the goal only seemed to galvanise Cambridge into putting themselves out of sight. Edwards and Cohen kept Ashcroft and Luff well supplied, but despite getting in behind frequently, profligacy let the Blues down as the game appeared to be meandering to its close. The fourth goal finally arrived on the stroke of full time, as yet another sumptuous through-ball set Luff away down the left. Her cut-back was gathered by Edwards on the edge of the area, who thumped the ball into the top-left corner to cap a convincing performance and better reflect the Light Blues’ dominance.

Talking to Varsity after the match, East Anglia skipper Jess Keeling acknowledged Cambridge’s superiority: “On reflection, Cambridge are a lot sharper and fitter than us,” she said, “so they deserved it. At half-time we had a spurt of belief but it’s hard to maintain – we gave it our all, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

The Blues’ captain, Gerda Bachrati, remarked: “I think UEA put up a good fight, and there’s definitely aspects of our game that we need to work on in the lead-up to Varsity, but it’s great to retain our straight wins to the top of the league. The goals we scored today were the best goals all season, and the girls should be really proud of that.”

CUAFCW: Bleehen, Bachrati (c), Malley, Brown, Gradin, Edwards, Hickman, Luff, Ashcroft, Cohen, Mendes-Jones, Horsler, Graves, Hirst

UEAWFC: Tibble, Froud, Briggs, Riggall, L’etang, Zavala, Keeling (c), Turvil, Bisbrown, Morgan, Hoernke, Robb, Matoba