Plymouth Argyle Women v Ipswich Women result

This weekend, Plymouth Argyle Women fell to a 5-0 defeat against league leaders Ipswich Town in the FA Women's National League Southern Premier Division.

The game, which was played at Home Park in front of a crowd of 624, was always going to be tough for Argyle, who, after a very hard run of fixtures, found themselves with only one league win this season. Their East-Anglian opposition, in stark contrast, had won all nine of their league games so far. Despite their differences in form, the game began quite even, with both sides struggling to get into the game. But Ipswich did have the opening chance in the 7th minute, Barratt played Brasero-Carreira in behind the Argyle defence, and it took a smart save from goalkeeper Poppy Soper to keep the scores level early on.

Ipswich did take the lead in the 30th minute. O'Brien was tripped as she entered the Argyle penalty area, giving the referee no option but to award a penalty to Ipswich. Up stood Paige Peake, who blasted the ball past Poppy Soper to give Ipswich the advantage. Ipswich then nearly doubled that advantage when Brasero-Carreira's miss-hit cross struck the underside of the Argyle bar, and it took quick reactions from central defender Panagiota Papaioannou to clear the ball off the line and keep the score at 1-0.

Having struggled for opportunities in the opening stages, Argyle nearly struck back moments before half-time. Captain Zoe Cunningham cut inside the Ipswich box, but her left-footed strike was well held by Quantrill in the Ipswich net.

Argyle continued this momentum into the start of the 2nd half as they began to see more of the ball but still struggled to carve out clear cut chances against a resolute Ipswich backline. The closest they came was in the 47th minute when set-piece specialist Zoe Cunningham fired a 25-yard free-kick over the Ipswich crossbar. Then Ipswich took control of the game with their 2nd goal of the afternoon. Robertson burst in behind the Argyle defence, and her cross found Barratt free in the 6-yard box to tap home and double their advantage.

Argyle did nearly get a goal back, again through Cunningham, who, after skipping past a few challenges, found herself with space at the edge of the box. But while off-balance, her shot went wide of the far post. Then in the 71st minute, Ipswich killed the game off. Having won a free-kick right on the edge of the Argyle penalty area, Lafayette curled the ball in to find Natasha Thomas, who tapped home to extend their advantage.

Then with Argyle tiring towards the end of the game, Ipswich would add more gloss to the scoreline through their 4th and 5th goals. Robertson did well to spin past her marker and play the ball to Biggs, who expertly fired the ball past Soper for their 4th goal. Then in the last minute of the game, Lucy O'Brien was fouled in the area and won Ipswich their 2nd penalty of the game. O'Brien then dusted herself off before firing expertly into the bottom corner for Ipswich’s 5th goal of the afternoon.

It was a difficult game for the Argyle Women's team against an excellent Ipswich side. But the Pilgrims will be looking to bounce back and get back to winning ways next weekend when they are away to Chichester & Selsey in FAWNL Cup.



small crowd of  624