Fulham 3-4 Blackburn Rovers
FA Tesco Women's Premier League
2pm, Sunday 28 September 2008
Burnham FC
A hat-trick from Katie Anderton helped Blackburn Rovers back to form at Fulham on Sunday, as they won by the odd goal in seven at Burnham FC.
Rovers held a 3-1 lead early in the second half, but when the home side staged something of a comeback, it took a late goal to complete Anderton’s hat-trick to ensure all three points were heading back to Lancashire.
Blackburn started the game brightly and were quickly into a two goal lead following two neat strikes from Natalie Preston and Anderton (left). However, a penalty from Katie McIntyre gave Fulham hope going into the half time break.
Only three minutes after the re-start and Rovers had another as Anderton chased a long ball down the left channel before calmly lifting a fine shot over the Fulham goalkeeper and into the goal.
Fulham rallied though and Jess Trimnell showed a good touch to control and then fire home from close range in the 56th minute before Alisha Moran broke through to level things up with just over ten minutes of the game to play.
It wasn’t to be for the Cottagers though, as Anderton completed her hat-trick and won the game for Rovers with the winner three minutes from time, sliding home from close range after a previous save from the goalkeeper.
Rovers manager Adam Lakeland admitted afterwards that it was a welcome result for his team, but there is still room for improvement in their performances.
“It was a result that we needed, we knew we needed three points today to kick us back up the league,” he said.
“I have to say though, that is probably our worst performance from the previous six games.
“We always looked a threat going forward, but I felt our build up play at time looked a bit anxious and frantic and our defending at times wasn’t particularly great.
“We gave away some stupid goals which made the game a lot more difficult for us than it should’ve been
“But at the end of the day, we got the three points that we came for and I think a lot of teams will come here and find it difficult because they are well organised and work hard.
“They’ve held Watford and Bristol here in their last two games so we’re happy to go back to Blackburn with three points.”
Goals
Fulham
McIntyre (pen) 22, Trimnell 56, Moran 79
Blackburn Rovers
Preston 9, Anderton 13, 48, 87
