Stone Dominoes LFC faced tough opposition for their first pre-season game at home to Boldmere St Michael’s FC and lost a tight game 3-2 to a last-minute goal.
It was an incident-packed game, with the Dominoes’ Becky Arnold seeing red and defender Bethan Woodings having to put on the gloves after the side’s keeper was injured.
With a handful of current players unavailable, Stone nevertheless started positively, with new players settling into the squad well. Chances came for Dominoes but the Boldmere keeper was having a good game and they were first to score with an own goal from a corner. The Dominoes responded well and regained their momentum, giving scoring opportunities to new player Tammi Bennett and last season’s top goalscorer Mollie Prime.
The game was played in thirds so a change of formation and couple of players saw Stone pile more pressure on the Boldmere defence. Tammi Bennett on her debut for the club scored after a cross in from midfielder Amy Thompson, making the score 1-1. On every corner, Stone looked dangerous. Hayley Mason and Jules Kendrick had already come close but it was Lauren Ward who netted for the Dominoes with a quality header from a Kerry McCourt corner.
The last third saw more end-to-end action and defender Bethan Woodings had to go in goal due to the Stone keeper getting injured. Boldmere didn’t have that many chances on goal as the Stone defence was on form, but they scored again to make it 2-2 with 10 minutes to go with a long-range shot dipping over Woodings’ head. Soon after Stone’s central defender Becky Arnold saw red for a foul on the striker and as she was the last player, the referee had no choice but to send her off. This saw another slight change in formation and after a great ball from the Boldmere captain, the defence were split leaving the quick Boldmere striker one on one with the keeper and with the last kick of the game, scored the winner making it 3-2 to Boldmere.
