Bristol Academy and Chelsea were both victorious in Saturday's WSL games.
The FA WSL
Saturday 18 August 2012
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Doncaster Belles manager John Buckley was furious with his players after they missed the chance to grab a much-needed point against a profligate Chelsea side.
Substitute Laura Coombs broke the deadlock after the visitors spurned chance after chance in the first half. She smashed in a 75th-minute shot from inside the penalty area to secure the points and push her side into second place in
The FA WSL table.
While that cheered the Chelsea girls on the way back to London, Belles boss Buckley was on a totally different track when he said afterwards: "We had a 15 minute spell in the second half, but sometimes you have to be honest and I don't think we deserved anything at all.
"I can pick two or three players out who deserved some credit - but it's getting to be the same two or three every time," said Buckley, whose normal squad of 23 had been cut right down to just 14 available for this match. One of them, Katie Holtham, had just stepped off a plane from Canada, where she had been attending a wedding, just over two hours before kick-off.
"It's very frustrating and yes I have got to take my share of the blame because I am the manager," added Buckley. "We have a clear week now before the game against Arsenal and hopefully things will improve."
Later on Saturday evening, the weekend's second match saw Bristol Academy triumph over Liverpool and Reds keeper Laura Davies admitted she was heartbroken after her heroics failed to prevent defeat at the Stoke Gifford Stadium.
Davies included a penalty save from her Welsh international team-mate Jess Fishlock among a string of superb stops to prevent Bristol running riot.
But there was nothing she could do to prevent Spanish striker Laura Del Rio forcing home Bristol’s winner in the 72nd minute – although she recovered to pull off more fine saves in the latter stages.
“That’s probably the best game I’ve had and to finish on the losing side was heartbreaking after making so many saves, but that’s the way football goes sometimes,” said Davies.
“The fact Jess and I are team-mates for Wales had no bearing on my penalty save – she’d never even practiced taking one against me before. Luckily I just guessed the right way.
“I seemed to get in the way of most things and hopefully can keep that going over the rest of the season.”
Bristol boss Mark Sampson was delighted with the victory – and the way his side kept going.
“Even though the ball just wouldn’t go in for us, we kept our composure and kept playing our football and there’s no doubt the three points were thoroughly deserved,” he said.
“Laura had an incredible game in their goal and made eight or nine saves that probably nobody thought she would get to.”
For more details on all of these games, and to keep up to date with The FA WSL throughout the season visit the official League website: www.FAWSL.com
