Gloucestershire County Women's League Division One (From Gazette Series)

Gloucestershire County Women's League Division One

Gloucestershire County Women's League Division One Cam Bulldogs Ladies 2 Dursley Town Ladies 1

ONE moment of quality decided a tense and hard-fought derby match in favour of Cam.

With the match poised at 1-1 with a little over ten minutes to go, the Bulldogs finally broke their tireless opponents down when Beck Millard picked out Michelle Purse with a wonderful diagonal ball, which the 12-goal Cam top-scorer despatched for the winning goal.

However, if Purse was the most likely source of a goal for the home side, the scorer of their opening goal was quite the reverse.

Not since an 8-0 win over City of Gloucester in the 1997/98 season had Bulldogs captain Kirsty Swan found the net.

But when Lucy Bennett's second minute corner dipped in towards the near post, Swan was on hand to divert the ball past Jodie Turl and give her side an early lead.

Dursley could have been shattered by the setback but settled down and came at their hosts.

Emma Leahey had already fired one warning shot across the Cam goal when Town pulled level in the 14th minute.

Julianne Farragher's low cross from the left was fumbled by diving Bulldogs goalkeeper Lina Elliott and Emma Kent drove the loose ball in from 12 yards.

Farragher then broke clear of a flat-footed home back line but her fine shot was well saved by Elliott.

The game looked like heading into half-time without further incident but then the bad luck with injury that has beset Town all season struck again three minutes before the interval.

Dursley's Gemma Butler went in for a clattering 50-50 challenge with Reanne Vines but while the Cam player bounced straight back up, Butler did not move.

The game had to be halted and an ambulance called to deal with a serious knee injury. Representatives of both clubs wish her well.

After the break, the home side exerted pressure on the visitors but Town centre backs Sally Ash and Stacey Miles defended superbly, while Charlotte Palmer seemed to cover every blade of glass in front of them.

With time running out it became apparent that it would take either a mistake or a moment of brilliance to decide the match. Thankfully it was the latter.

Receiving the ball 25 yards from goal on the right, Cam substitute Millard found an angle to finally catch Dursley out and Purse raced in to bring down the ball and stroke it wide of Turl to put her side 2-1 up.

The visitors had one last chance to salvage something two minutes from time but when Bev Tanner fouled Farragher on the edge of the box the tall Dursley striker curled her free-kick just over the bar with Elliott scrambling.

Cam: L Elliott, K Swan, M Stokes, J Wood, B Tanner, R Vines, K Everett (R Millard 75), A Culley, L Bennett, L Jackson (L Matthews 68), M Purse. Unused sub: L Carter. Goals: Swan (2), Purse (79).

Dursley: J Turl, R Knott, G Butler (F Stroud 42), S Ash, S Miles, E Leahey, C Palmer, A Bonser, A Chivers, J Farragher, E Kent. Goals: Kent (14). Referee: Colin Gay.