Ladies' football: Surface is artificial - but win is real for Chichester at Lewes

Goals by Steph Mills and Skye Gould (2) earned Chichester Ladies' development team a fine 3-2 win on the 3G surface at The Rookery at Lewes.
Skye Gould was one of the scorers for Chi's development squadSkye Gould was one of the scorers for Chi's development squad
Skye Gould was one of the scorers for Chi's development squad

With the rain coming down hard, City made a number of changes from the line-up in their previous game against Brighton.

Jasmin Cain came in to make her debut for the club, and Emma Alexandre was in goal with the regular keeper unavailable.

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Chi started positively, taking full use of the flat surface with Sian Payne and Lauren Ellis combining well. Payne played Ellis through on goal and her effort was only just over.

Amy Bailey also struck a shot marginally too high and Chi’s pressure paid off when an Ellis delivery fell to Gould on the edge of the box and she showed amazing composure to bring the ball down, shift it on to her right foot and place the ball superbly in the top corner.

City kept the pressure on but Lewes equalised following a through ball that split the Chi defence, the Lewes forward bringing the ball back on to her left foot and blasting it past Alexandre.

Alexandre had to deal with a few long shots, impressively parrying one over the bar.

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Chi were winning a lot of corners with Ellis sending in great deliveries.

City regained the lead with another impressive goal. Cain controlled the ball confidently at the back and played a lovely pass to Mills whose good footwork gave her space to curl the ball into the far corner.

Lewes came out of the traps quickly in the second half and were beginning to show signs of quality as they began to maintain possession.

This paid off when a ball was delivered into the box, evading Alexandre’s foot and hitting the Lewes forward in the face. The home player did not know much about it but the ball trickled in to make it 2-2.

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Chi began to show their quality, with Cain, Becky Steed and Gould playing the ball out nicely from the back and Natalie Clarke showing fantastic composure to link the passing.

Amber Beaven was preventing any attack down the left with her outstanding tracking. Jodie Prince, Mills and Payne competed brilliantly down the right.

Chi won a corner which was superbly delivered into the box by Jodie Pallant for Gould to smash a header in off the underside of the bar.

The visitors continued to dig deep and ended a wet, cold afternoon with three points.

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CITY: Alexandre; Cain, Steed, Gould; Payne, Clarke, Prince, Beaven; Mills, Bailey (J Pallant), Ellis (B Pallant).

* Chichester’s first team were due to play Shanklin but it was rained off.

This Sunday, the City first team play their massive FA cup tie against QPR Ladies at Oaklands Park (2pm) while the development squad face West Ham in a league game at Clymping (2pm).

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