SGS Women 1-0 Hartpury: Report
By Dylan Richings
In a game decided by fine margins, SGS secured an impressive win in difficult conditions against rivals Hartpury College with a second-half goal from a corner.
The first half saw a relatively even first few minutes, however neither side could truly challenge the opposition goalkeeper until the 15th minute, in which the first real chances of the game, both for SGS, were dealt with by the Hartpury back line.
After this point the momentum shifted, as most of the pressure came from the visitors throughout the majority of the half, but much of the attacking moves were dealt with confidently by the hosts' line of defence, and the only shots towards the SGS goal were either off target from long range or easily dealt with by the goalkeeper.
After the half hour mark, SGS increasingly saw more possession and chances, with impressive moments of build-up play despite a lack of shots or notable big chances - the best opportunity being a corner that was cleared by the Hartpury defence with four minutes remaining in the half.
Following the interval, SGS started strong, winning a corner from a misplaced kickoff from the visitors, however neither it nor the following effort could be directed goalwards, but the key moment of the game came from another SGS corner ten minutes later, where after a good delivery towards the near post a brief scramble led to a strike sneaking through into the inside netting.
Hartpury pushed for an equaliser consistently throughout the remainder of the second half, however SGS were defensively resolute, again resulting in several long range efforts that failed to challenge the goalkeeper, and also had a fair share of opportunities across the last thirty minutes.
The most prominent of these came eight minutes from the final whistle, as the opposition goalkeeper mishit a clearance which was intercepted around thirty yards from goal, however little could be made of this opportunity due to a forward pass being intercepted by a Hartpury defender.
A flurry of late efforts from the visitors were all marginally off target, while a counter-attack from SGS in the 89th minute was ruled out before the ball could trickle into the back of the net; the full time whistle soon after confirmed an important win.