Club news
Written by: Jack
Defender, Ellie Hack, once again showed her threat from set pieces, inspiring the Rooks to a third win in a row, against Sunderland on Sunday.
After a first-half that didn’t catch fire, Lewes took more of a foothold after the restart, and the constant pressure paid off, with Hack sealing the win late on.
It was a slow start to the game with the Rooks controlling possession but failing to create much in the way of meaningful chances. There were a few nervy moments at the back which the Lady Black Cats failed to capitalise on.
Sophie Whitehouse was called into action early on after a misplaced pass saw Jessica Brown clean through, but the ever-reliable Whitehouse stood strong and denied.
For the remainder of the half, there was very little to talk about; Lewes had several half-chances on the break, firstly with Paula Howells in a one-on-one with the last Sunderland defender, but couldn’t beat her. This was followed by Emily Kraft almost being clean-through from a long ball, she made a terrific first-touch but once again the strong Sunderland defence recovered.
This was the tale for most of the game making it easy to understand how, despite the losses they’ve had, a victory does not come easy against them.
The second-half was a lot brighter for the Rooks, Kraft had a strike from range which was comfortably saved, and not long after, some good work by Howells set up Amber-Keegan Stobbs whose curled effort was tipped over by Claudia Moan.
The Rooks seemed far calmer in possession in the second-half, following a change of system which put more numbers in the midfield; this made it far more difficult for Sunderland to play through the lines.
We were, however, still finding it tough to break the hosts down, and the next chance didn’t come until the 81st minute when Kraft played in Amelia Hazard who rifled an effort just over the bar.
Just two minutes later though, the Rooks finally found the breakthrough. Grace Palmer’s fantastic delivery from a free kick found Rhian Clerverly at the back post, cutting back for her fellow centre-back, Ellie Hack, to turn it in.
The Rooks hung on for all three points, which now leaves us sixth in the Barclays Women’s Championship.