London Seaward 0 Ashford Town 2

FA Women's National League Division One South East, Sunday 5th March

Sunday saw me over at Wadham Lodge for a FA Women’s National Division One South East contest which saw a brace from Ashley Cheatley in the final twenty minutes hand Ashford Town all three points against promotion chasing London Seaward.

The division had recently lost it’s second side of the season in Hounslow which is a shame for them, but with all their results expunged it was a big shame for the majority in the league too as all their wins and points and goals against the bottom side were taken away, which certainly changed the way the table looks now.

And one of the biggest benefactors from this were London Seaward who haven’t actually played Hounslow this season, so they lost nothing and are now in a very strong position heading into this contest, sitting third in the table and only three points of leaders Hashtag United with a handful of games remaining in the season.

The hosts form had been excellent too, four straight wins since the turn of the year, and one of those was against today’s opponents when the London side netted a 4-3 win, however they did lose last time out at league leaders Hashtag United, so they were looking to bounce back from this disappointment and get their promotion charge back on track.

Visitors Ashford Town were three places below their opponents and nine points worse off and seemed kind of in no mans land in terms of troubling the top sides and being in danger of being sucked into the relegation fight, they were way above the drop zone so the rest of the season would be all about getting as high up the table as they could, a top four finish was not out of the question.

They had netted three straight wins since the beginning of 2023 themselves, but defeats to London Seaward and then AFC Wimbledon had kind of halted their charge, but they did win last time out at home to Chesham United 2-0, so were coming into this one having got that winning feeling back after two disappointments, could they net a big win here and keep up their hopes of maybe troubling the top three perhaps?

The first period saw little in the way of chances, a total contrast to their game a few weekend's ago when they shared seven goals, the hosts best chance fell to their number nine after she got clear on goal but failed to get enough loft on the ball to take it over the keeper who had come to the edge of her box, and down the other end the visitors saw a cross thump back off the near post, not sure if the keeper had it covered or not but it seemed to surprise everyone when it did.

Not a great first period then, and the second wasn't much better, the hosts were having a frustrating game and just could not get anything going, and the visitors confidence was growing with every passing minute, and with eighteen minutes of the ninety to go they edged in front when a ball into the box saw several players go up for it, including the keeper, and after they had clattered into each other, the loose ball eventually fell to Cheatley who fired the ball goal wards and saw it go in off a defender. It was a messy goal and was in keeping with the scrappy nature of the contest, but the visitors would not have cared one jot and now had something to hold onto in the final quarter of the contest.

The hosts, encouraged by the few in the main stand with myself, kept trying to plug away and find a route through the visiting back line, but they found them to difficult to pass, and deep into added on time Ashford broke on their opponents and a ball forward saw Cheatley chase down what looked like a lost cause, but the keeper came and instead of booting the ball clear totally missed it, and Ashford's top scorer had the easiest task of rolling the ball into the empty net for her second to seal the game for the visitors.

It's back to back defeats for Seaward now after what had been a superb 2023, they remain in third but loose ground to the top two now after both won today, whereas Ashford now have back to back victories after a couple of losses, they are back on track now and are only six points off their third placed opponents in the table, remaining in sixth spot.

Full time London Seaward 0 Ashford Town 2