Forest Women Win At Cheltenham

Cheltenham Town Ladies 0-4 Nottingham Forest Women (Friendly) 09.05.21

On the road, Nottingham Forest Women claimed a second consecutive 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon, seeing off Gloucestershire side, Cheltenham.

Continually building on their recent run of form, Head Coach Andy Cook fielded a strong side with, as has been the case throughout this post-season, a plethora of changes later in the game, all outfield players seeing at least some action.

Cook had said, to nottinghamforest.co.uk, about his charges’ post-season, that: “The games have been brilliant and I made the choice to really push the team and load them with eleven fixtures throughout April and May.

“Our April record has been very pleasing and I’ve been left just as happy with what’s happened at the other end of the pitch too.

“We’re evolving on the pitch and this time the team will bear fruit in pre-season.”

In under ten minutes the visitors took the lead, Olivia Cook netting her second goal of the post-season following a corner from Laura Dexter, which bamboozled the home defence, the ball falling to Cook who slots home the opener from close range.

A dominant performance from the Garibaldi, doubled their lead on the break when a defence-splitting pass from Hayley James lands with Laura Dexter, she continues the momentum of the ball before slotting past the advancing ‘keeper for an interval lead.

On the restart, Cook would make a multitude of substitutions, six of them in fact, including Rosie Axten who, within twenty minutes of join the fray, would put the game out of sight. Collecting a floated pass into the box, hot-shot Axten takes the ball in her stride, and lifts it over the ‘keeper for her third of the post-season.

With further substitutions being made in the final quarter, Forest’s lead was further added to when, in stoppage time, it would be Charlotte Steggles, another of the half-time subs, claimed her fourth goal of the post-season after a corner wasn’t cleared, and Steggles nets from close-range.

Victory was Forest’s fifth of the post-season, and, with twenty goals now under their belts, make the trip to Suffolk in midweek, when they face Ipswich Town Women on Tuesday 16 May.

Forest: Aja Aguirre, Hayley James, Lyndsey Harkin (Sophie Tudor 76), Olivia Cook (Grace Walters 46), Charlotte Greengrass (Georgia Hewitt 76), Sophie Tudor (Charlotte Steggles 46), Annabel McKechnie (Bolu Fisher 46), Mai Moncaster (Alice Higginbottom 46), Rachel Brown, Katie Middleton (Sophia Bonser 46), Laura Dexter (Rosie Axten 46).