Bedford seal narrow away victory over Sevenoaks

Bedford travelled to Kent to face Sevenoaks hoping for a repeat of their goal scoring exploits last week. Despite not reaching those levels the ladies were still able to scrape a vital 1-0 win with the goal coming from a first half short corner strike.

Bedford's squad remained unchanged for the third consecutive week, and full of confidence they started the game on the front foot with good attacking territory and several early short corners.

Becky Childs and Kelly Bingham were able to carry the ball, taking on their opposite numbers, finding Bedford forward’s in space and there was some good interplay, without any clear cut chances being created.

Andrea Mason just narrowly missed out on a vital touch on a fierce Sherri Skene strike but then with the Sevenoaks keeper blocking every direct effort, Bedford worked a slip option and Childs set up Kate Costin to flick the ball into the bottom left hand corner to put the visitors ahead.

Bedford were still the games dominant force with their back three rarely put under pressure but with ten minutes of the first half to play Bedford went down to 10 players with Katherine Winger sin binned for a yellow card for what the umpire viewed as a stick tackle, having already had her card marked with a green earlier in the half.

Bedford held out well during this spell with excellent defending from Elli Priston , SJ Darrington and the increasingly impressive summer signing Nic Pether.

At half time and with Winger restored, Bedford spoke about being smarter and more clinical with their play however their performance failed to match their intentions as bad habits slipped into their play.

Instead of their forwards stealing the headlines and the plaudits, Bedford relied on a solid defensive display and a second consecutive clean sheet from Leanne Sargeant between the posts.

Katherine Winger, Sherri Skene and particularly Sarah Walsh excelled in the midfield making some good interceptions and tackle’s however when Bedford got the ball forward they couldn't make it stick and the Sevenoaks keeper was able to come out and block shots from Mason, Norford, Bingham and Costin.

Despite Maya Thrasher and Fran Lee being full of running they unfortunately couldn't find any magic in the circle and the longer that the game went on, the more the Kent side sensed an equalizer.

Sargeant made a couple of important saves from shots in open play and from short corners the Kent side’s well worked routines, on another day, could have seen them get something from the fixture.

But Bedford proved resolute in defence and clung on to take all three points to make it three wins on the bounce. Next Saturday St Albans are in town, with kick off at Bedford Hockey Centre at 1pm.