Carol Checkley's debut as Brentford FC Women B Team goalkeeper saw here pick up a clean sheet and a team win. The Bees defeated the New London Lionesses Development Women 2-0 with goals from Cheyenne Faulkner and Calli Weaver. It was a first league win since mid-November with The Bees mostly involved in cup action in the past few weeks.
The game began at a slow pace, with both teams appearing hesitant to make their presence known, but as the game progressed, The Bees began to produce many chances. Players were aggressive in seeking space through the opposition, who were continually making highly successful interception efforts. When the Lionesses had the ball, they were excellent at guarding it, but The Bees always found a way to get through.
Dominating play across the pitch, a minor lapse in judgement by the newcomer keeper nearly cost the Bees, but Salma Mahamud recovered admirably. This alerted The Bees, and the turnover resulted in a wonderful goal touched in by Faulkner after 14 minutes.
The game remained slow as players from both sides attempted to create chances, fighting frantically from middle to either end but failing to convert. At 44 minutes, The Bees had a close call, but nothing came of it. Soon after half time there was a scramble as multiple players tried to shoot for goal, but the post, keeper and opposition defence kept it out. There were calls for handball, but the referee dismissed it. The Bees were undaunted, and Weaver scored minutes later to put them up 2-0.
The game kept momentum until the end, when no more goals were scored. The Bees had a few chances, but none were enough to break down the Lionesses defence.
Will Blithing, Women's B Team Head Coach, was satisfied with the outcome of the game but not with their performance, as he stated: "I felt we dropped our standards a bit on Sunday, we didn’t play our game as well as we know we can. But it was hard with the conditions and the stop start type of match it was, but we did the job to get the three points."