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DHFC Women's Team

The women's first team got their first FAWN League win today, 1-0 away to London Seaward (the former Leyton Orient women's team) at Barkingside. It was a dominant performance in which the Hamlet struggled to find the telling final ball to set up clear chances inside the box, while the home keeper dealt capably with anything from longer range. I think it was Natalie Taylor, one of our trio of new recruits from Chatham, who scored the only goal on the hour. A run and cross from the left into a crowded box led to a series of strikes; the first rebounded from the near post, the second was blocked on the goalline, the third was neatly prodded into the back of the net from a sitting position on the edge of the 6 yard box.

There seems to be some confusion between newcomers Natalie Taylor and Natasha Stephens, who were listed in last week's programme as #10 and #15 respectively but vice versa on today's teamsheet. The pen pictures described the former as a midfielder and the latter as a winger, so I'm going with Natalie, as the scorer definitely played in the centre of midfield throughout! Attendance was given as 120, with a generous proportion in pink and blue.

Our reserve team beat Clapton Community 2-1 in the Laserwaffle D1N, at the St Saviour's & St Olave's ground.
 
Pink Panther said:
The women's first team got their first FAWN League win today, 1-0 away to London Seaward (the former Leyton Orient women's team) at Barkingside. It was a dominant performance in which the Hamlet struggled to find the telling final ball to set up clear chances inside the box, while the home keeper dealt capably with anything from longer range. I think it was Natalie Taylor, one of our trio of new recruits from Chatham, who scored the only goal on the hour. A run and cross from the left into a crowded box led to a series of strikes; the first rebounded from the near post, the second was blocked on the goalline, the third was neatly prodded into the back of the net from a sitting position on the edge of the 6 yard box.

There seems to be some confusion between newcomers Natalie Taylor and Natasha Stephens, who were listed in last week's programme as #10 and #15 respectively but vice versa on today's teamsheet. The pen pictures described the former as a midfielder and the latter as a winger, so I'm going with Natalie, as the scorer definitely played in the centre of midfield throughout! Attendance was given as 120, with a generous proportion in pink and blue.

Our reserve team beat Clapton Community 2-1 in the Laserwaffle D1N, at the St Saviour's & St Olave's ground.
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Good report that. I thought we bossed two-thirds of the pitch impressively, but seemed to have few ideas in the final third beyond "wang a cross in and hope for the best". If we can fix that, we might be one of the best teams in the division.

Seaward looked easily bullied, and like they might struggle this season. Brit Saylor made the point that their pitch is very narrow, and that they could be opened-up easily away from home.

Only two games in, but it's already looking like Norwich are in a class of their own. The pursuing group looks like it might be led by big money Real Bedford and perhaps London Bees (tafka Barnet), who I'm told hoovered much of the previous London Seaward group. Will be interesting to see how we compare to the latter two.
 
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Alex W said:
Seaward looked easily bullied, and like they might struggle this season. Brit Saylor made the point that their pitch is very narrow, and that they could be opened-up easily away from home.

Only two games in, but it's already looking like Norwich are in a class of their own. The pursuing group looks like it might be led by big money Real Bedford and London Bees (tafka Barnet), who I'm told hoovered much of the previous London Seaward group. Will be interesting to see how we compare to the latter two.
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These are the factors I wasn't aware of, i.e. how much weaker or stronger might some teams be compared to last season. Seaward finished 8th with a record of W7 D8 L7, then there was a big gap to the bottom 4, of which Cambridge and Chesham stayed up by a relatively narrow margin.

Today's games were all won and lost by no more than 2 goal margins, and 9 of the 12 teams have been beaten at least once in the first 2 rounds. Norwich are certainly much stronger than Seaward, and now have 6 points, as do Bedford and Actonians.
 
Pink Panther said:
These are the factors I wasn't aware of, i.e. how much weaker or stronger might some teams be compared to last season. Seaward finished 8th with a record of W7 D8 L7, then there was a big gap to the bottom 4, of which Cambridge and Chesham stayed up by a relatively narrow margin.

Today's games were all won and lost by no more than 2 goal margins, and 9 of the 12 teams have been beaten at least once in the first 2 rounds. Norwich are certainly much stronger than Seaward, and now have 6 points, as do Bedford and Actonians.
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It makes a nice change from all the blowouts last year! I see Fulham beat Millwall 7-0 and Dartford beat Newhaven 8-0 in the laserwaffle today. This league looks like it has a much healthier level of competition.
 
Pink Panther said:
Our reserve team beat Clapton Community 2-1 in the Laserwaffle D1N, at the St Saviour's & St Olave's ground.
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Have to say I was very impressed by the Reserves today and it probably could have been a more convincing victory with a little more luck and better finishing. Both goals were scored by Natalia Davila, a very talented player with an electrifying turn of pace and a powerful. I’ve played with (and against) her both at Clapton CFC and in small sided football and it wouldn't surprise me if she’s knocking on the door of the first team pretty soon. That said, wearing my Clapton hat, we might have snatched a point late on but for a brilliant last ditch goal saving tackle from a Dulwich defender.
 
In regards to LWSFL teams the likes of Fulham and Brentford are getting closer & closer to semi pro outfits. Even at Clapton we’re talking about adding an extra training session each week to keep pace. Interesting to note that Dartford have pulled their reserve side from D1S after fixtures were cast whilst Cheshunt forfeited their first game then conceded 17 on Sunday. Next Sunday is the Women’s FA Cup so be interesting to see some of the results there.
 
A 7-0 home win today against Ashford Town in the FAWNDOSE. Goals from Angie Dunbar-Bonnie (2), Natalie Taylor (2), a Lily Price penalty, an own goal, and the last one from Summer Roberts, making her first appearance of the season as a late substitute. Attendance 480.

Ashford were last season's 4th placed team, and the only side to beat runners up Norwich, but now they're bottom after losing their first 3 games. I was told they all went on a team holiday just before the season started and returned less than fully fit!
 
Pink Panther said:
A 7-0 home win today against Ashford Town in the FAWNDOSE. Goals from Angie Dunbar-Bonnie (2), Natalie Taylor (2), a Lily Price penalty, an own goal, and the last one from Summer Roberts, making her first appearance of the season as a late substitute. Attendance 480.

Ashford were last season's 4th placed team, and the only side to beat runners up Norwich, but now they're bottom after losing their first 3 games. I was told they all went on a team holiday just before the season started and returned less than fully fit!
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Was wondering what happened to them, they used to give us all sorts of bother a couple of seasons ago.

Really pleasing thing about all three League games (although I’m going on the result of the second here, as I couldn’t make it) is all of them in different ways have made me think the team properly belong at this level.
 
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scousedom said:
Was wondering what happened to them, they used to give us all sorts of bother a couple of seasons ago.

Really pleasing thing about all three League games (although I’m going on the result of the second here, as I couldn’t make it) is all of them in different ways have made me think the team properly belong at this level.
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Undoubtedly, and this perfectly illustrates the folly of the one-up-one-down system. Fulham, Dartford and Ebbsfleet would all have been bigger tests than London Seaward and Ashford Town.
 
Alex W said:
Undoubtedly, and this perfectly illustrates the folly of the one-up-one-down system. Fulham, Dartford and Ebbsfleet would all have been bigger tests than London Seaward and Ashford Town.
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I'm not sure how you resolve that, though, with divisions of 12. It's the same throughout the women's pyramid, other than between the top 2 national divisions.

In any case, Ashford were a top 4 side in this division last season, so they weren't even close to being relegated. They've already lost half as many games as in the whole of last season.

I was looking at results in the Laserwaffle last week and noticed Newhaven (newly promoted as champions) were hammered 8-0 at home, while Aylesford (who seemed to be perennial strugglers in the Premier Division before finally slipping through the trapdoor) had a 6-0 win at the lower level, so those results suggest there doesn't need to be greater movement between those two levels.

There were a couple of 5 goal wins and one by 4 goals in our division this week, yet last week most were decided by the odd goal, and none by more than 2 goals.

Our team looks strong, and the new players are showing up well, but it's still a bit early to make definitive judgements on the overall strength of the league for me.

Incidentally QPR hosted Real Bedford at Loftus Road today, and pulled a smaller attendance than us.
 
Pink Panther said:
I'm not sure how you resolve that, though, with divisions of 12. It's the same throughout the women's pyramid, other than between the top 2 national divisions.

In any case, Ashford were a top 4 side in this division last season, so they weren't even close to being relegated. They've already lost half as many games as in the whole of last season.

I was looking at results in the Laserwaffle last week and noticed Newhaven (newly promoted as champions) were hammered 8-0 at home, while Aylesford (who seemed to be perennial strugglers in the Premier Division before finally slipping through the trapdoor) had a 6-0 win at the lower level, so those results suggest there doesn't need to be greater movement between those two levels.

There were a couple of 5 goal wins and one by 4 goals in our division this week, yet last week most were decided by the odd goal, and none by more than 2 goals.

Our team looks strong, and the new players are showing up well, but it's still a bit early to make definitive judgements on the overall strength of the league for me.

Incidentally QPR hosted Real Bedford at Loftus Road today, and pulled a smaller attendance than us.
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I get you can’t have two up from a 12 side league but you could have one up, with second and third playing off to then play the next-to-bottom side in the league above (higher side always at home).

That’s not ideal. You’ll maybe counter with contracts and season going on etc… I don’t have a comeback. And generally I hate playoffs across divisions on principle. But it really needs something to happen because good sides are being held back in unnaturally low leagues.

(I was actually saying this this time last year when we’d lost the first two and it felt the league was already not our business because there was nothing to play for. What a dickhead…)
 
I believe Ashford have lost a few players too. At least a couple can be found in Step Eight at Farnham Town. One is the sister of FTFC's mens first team captain.

Farnham won 0-6 today ( F.A Cup) and look poised to bulldozer their way through the bottom tier. I believe there were discussions about parachuting them in further up the system given who they were signing but the F.A. - correctly in my view - ruled those days are over in women's football and told them to start at the bottom.

Edited to say apparently Anya Kinnane captained FTWFC in the absence of the usual skipper today. Her brother, Ryan, captained the men to a 5-0 win yesterday. Can't have happened too often.
 
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scousedom said:
I get you can’t have two up from a 12 side league but you could have one up, with second and third playing off to then play the next-to-bottom side in the league above (higher side always at home).

That’s not ideal. You’ll maybe counter with contracts and season going on etc… I don’t have a comeback. And generally I hate playoffs across divisions on principle. But it really needs something to happen because good sides are being held back in unnaturally low leagues.

(I was actually saying this this time last year when we’d lost the first two and it felt the league was already not our business because there was nothing to play for. What a dickhead…)
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I wouldn't be against this in principle, and recall it being discussed on here this time last year. (I've got less of a problem with cross-divisional play-offs than with making teams play off against teams who've already finished below them over 9 months.) I think the conclusion was that you need to guarantee everyone completes their regular fixtures on the same day, with the play off set in stone for the following week, ideally on a neutral ground with a 3G pitch booked by the league to ensure availability of the venue. This seems to be an issue for many women's teams, with various other teams often having priority on their pitch, and Sundays often at risk if the pitch has just taken a battering on a wet Saturday. Last season our fixtures overran the scheduled final date by about 3 weeks, purely due to one club (Saltdean) having a lengthy backlog. Hopefully our new league is better organised.

Looking down below us, Fulham and Brentford are names you'd certainly expect to see several levels higher, bearing in mind the status of their men's teams.

Roger D said:
I believe Ashford have lost a few players too. At least a couple can be found in Step Eight at Farnham Town. One is the sister of FTFC's mens first team captain.

Farnham won 0-6 today ( F.A Cup) and look poised to bulldozer their way through the bottom tier. I believe there were discussions about parachuting them in further up the system given who they were signing but the F.A. - correctly in my view - ruled those days are over in women's football and told them to start at the bottom.
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I was told Ashford lost 3 players in the summer (which came second hand from their media officer) so presumably that's 3 good players they'd like to have kept, but I've no idea where they all went to. Apparently their manager was absent on holiday too, which probably didn't help! Their keeper had to go off injured at half time to be replaced by an outfielder, but it was already 5-0 by then.

It's London Bees away next week, newly relegated from the FAWN Premier, but with just 1 point from their first 3 matches.
 
When do we enter the FA Cup this year? There was a draw today I think but not our business yet.
Also anyone know more generally which cup competitions we’re in this season? (Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere).
 
Without the same level of remuneration in women’s football you’ll come across players playing “below their level”. Playing on dual registration from Clapton in Greater London D2N, there were a number of players who could easily play a lot higher but for whatever reason, be it travel or just playing alongside their friends, choose not too.
 
Al Crane said:
Cambridge United have published an article to confirm that our game against them on Sunday 22nd September will be played at the Abbey Stadium (main stand only open).

www.cambridgeunited.com

Cambridge United Women to host Dulwich at the Abbey | Cambridge United F.C.

www.cambridgeunited.com www.cambridgeunited.com
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Damn! I've already done that ground, whereas St Neots would have been a tick! It's a bit of a hike from the station (at least 20 minutes from memory) but a great town for a day out before autumn sets in.
 
Pink Panther said:
Damn! I've already done that ground, whereas St Neots would have been a tick! It's a bit of a hike from the station (at least 20 minutes from memory) but a great town for a day out before autumn sets in.
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It is annoyingly far from the town, and in my experience Cambridge traffic being what it is the buses aren’t much quicker than walking, certainly before you’ve hit the outskirts.

For anyone trying to do a pub in town beforehand, if it’s sunny I’d highly recommend The Mill. Good pub on a great spot on the river (has a field you can take your drinks into, mind the occasional cow) for watching punters fall in the Cam.
 
scousedom said:
It is annoyingly far from the town, and in my experience Cambridge traffic being what it is the buses aren’t much quicker than walking, certainly before you’ve hit the outskirts.

For anyone trying to do a pub in town beforehand, if it’s sunny I’d highly recommend The Mill. Good pub on a great spot on the river (has a field you can take your drinks into, mind the occasional cow) for watching punters fall in the Cam.
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I certainly wouldn't bother with a bus unless walking for maybe just over a mile is a challenge. The direct route from the station is through dull light industrial areas from memory. My visit was for a Conference match against Stevenage more than 15 years ago, then I returned for a cricket match a year or two later, Cambridge University v Surrey at Fenner's. The main centre is in the other direction, although there are some cracking backstreet pubs in the Victorian terraces closer to the station. The Cambridge Blue is one that springs to mind. I'll have to look up some others. Thameslink trains are not running through central London that day, which is a bit of a nuisance.
 
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