City up to second place with battling Downend Flyers victory

Goals from Maddie Brown and Bex Fry – her first for the Romans – saw City beat Downend Flyers 2-1 this afternoon at Cannon Clarke Stadium @ Twerton Park to move up to 2nd place in the Shield Services Group SW Regional WFL Div 1N table.

City opened the scoring after just nine minutes. Jess Evans’ cross was turned goalwards by Brown where the visitors keeper did brilliantly to divert it onto the post but couldn’t then prevent it spinning over the goalline. In control of the game now City doubled their lead on 28 minutes. Tara Taylor and Fry combined neatly deep in the Downend half for the latter to shoot right-footed into the corner of the net. The Bristol-based side pulled a goal back three minutes later when West was sent clear to drill a low shot past Lucy Clay.

The second half saw both sides enjoy good spells of possession but clear-cut chances were harder to come by with defences on top. A rare mistake by Katie Davies almost gifted Downed a goal but she did brilliantly to recover and block the eventual shot. Into the closing stages Jasmine Rennie saw a good chance well saved before Clay turned a well-struck shot behind, Downed won a number of late corners but they were defended solidly by City to hold on to the three points.