Club news
Written by: Jack
A neat second-half strike from Emily Kraft saw Lewes collect all the three points at Coventry United Sunday afternoon.
The Rooks remained unchanged from the last weekend’s first league win against Charlton Athletic. Rhian Cleverly led the side out against the bottom of the table Coventry with ourselves looking to extend our winning run and start the climb up on the table.
The home side looked positive in the first 10 minutes with the only shot on target in the early stages forcing a save from Lewes goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse.
Gradually, the Rooks hit the ground running and started building up attacking plays that did not stop until the final whistle. Grace Palmer, Amelia Hazard and Amber-Keegan Stobbs providing a fluid midfield setting up Emily Kraft and Paula Howells up ahead of them.
This was also enhanced by some quick runs by Rebecca McKenna and Ellie Mason on the wings. Lewes looked more likely to score all throughout the first-half but the chances were defended very well by the Coventry back-line and goalkeeper.
Coventry came close to scoring a couple of times themselves in the first-half but were denied by some good saves by Sophie Whitehouse and a good solid backline of Rhian Cleverly, Ellie Hack and Nat Johnson.
The second half saw Lewes continuing the attacking display showing a clear intent to get a win. Amelia Hazard came very close when a corner was met by the head of Ellie Hack and the ball fell into her feet in front of the goal.
The resultant shot missed the goal by inches. Lewes had a lot of chances but the ball somehow managed to stay out of the net.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 69th minute when Amber-Keegan Stobbs gathered the ball in the midfield and played it gently to Grace Palmer.
Palmer took a couple of touches and suddenly it was 3v2 for Lewes with Paula and Emily making runs on her either side. Grace placed the ball in the path of Kraft who took a touch and placed the ball calmly into the goal to claim her second league goal of the season.
The Rooks did not sit back and dominated the entire second-half but could not add to the goal tally. A resilient performance sets Lewes well to face the unbeaten, top of the league, Bristol City, next Sunday at home. Tickets for which you can purchase here.
Speaking at the end of the game, goal-scorer, Emily Kraft, had this to say: “It was a tough start; we knew what we were coming up against, but we fought until the end. We’ve shown what we can do, when we calm things down, we show that we can play good football.
“It was a really high quality game and we fought for the whole 90 minutes, it wasn’t easy at times, but we managed to see the game out and pick up the points.”
Similarly, manager, Scott Booth, praised his sides resilience, but hoped for his side to have added one or two more.
“It was a tough game, I felt like we were in control of it for large periods. I don’t think in the first half we utilised the ball well enough.
“We had some opportunities to score but we didn’t take those chances but in the second-half we had a lot more quality, used our possession a lot better and created more chances.
“I felt like if we took some of those chances a bit earlier then the game would have been a bit more comfortable.
“We got the goal though and after that and I do have give full credit to the players for seeing the game out and making sure we came away with three points.”
Photo credit: Will Cheshire