Midwest Counties Ladies League

Cradley Town DC Ladies 2 
Ross Juniors Women 1

Only a last minute wonder-strike stopped Ross Juniors Senior Women’s team getting their successive positive result against one of the Midwest County league’s top four sides on Sunday.

In the first half, Ross rode their luck early on as Cradley struck the woodwork twice, but the team reacted well and looked dangerous going forward.

And after half an hour, Ross took the lead, Naomi Douch and Millie Malsom combining for Amy Riggs to sweep the ball into the corner with an excellent finish.

Ross continued to play well after the break, but Cradley’s talented and powerful right winger hit a brilliant shot into the corner from outside the box to equalise.

Hannah Prithard in the Ross goal then made an outstanding save down to her right to keep the game level.

The Ross defence showed great resilience and quality, keeping Cradley at bay, while at the other end, the Cradley keeper had to rush out of her box on three occasions to keep the Juniors forward line from going through on goal.

Ross looked like they had got a draw over the line, but in the final minute, Cradley’s winger hit another outstanding shot from the edge of the box into the corner of the goal to win it at the death.

The team has started 2023 with three excellent performances and the fact they left the pitch disappointed not to have got a point against one of the league’s better teams is a sign of the excellent progress made in a very short time.

Meanwhile Ross Ladies made the very long trip to rural Llandrindod Wells to play Penybont in the Herefordshire Development League, only for the match to be abandoned at 1-1 after Katie Hughes suffered a serious clash of heads and needed hospital treatment.

The home side started strongly but Ross defended well and hit the home side with a terrific goal from Hughes to go 1-0 up after 20 minutes.

Both sides had chances to score but it was Penybont who next found the net, equalising from a well-taken corner right on half-time.

The second half started with Ross on the front foot, but than disaster struck in the 50th minute as Katie banged heads with a Penybont player.

It was clearly evident that it was a serious injury and an ambulance was called and the injured player was taken to hospital.

A Juniors spokesperson said: “Everyone wishes Katie a speedy recovery and also many thanks to the players and staff of Penybont for organising the ambulance and taking care of the player.”