Hall nets on return as Under-21s suffer defeat to Liverpool

Eloise Hall enjoyed a goalscoring return to our Women’s Under-21s side on Wednesday afternoon, but it came as a mere consolation for us as Liverpool pulled away with a 5-1 victory in the penultimate game of Professional Game Academy League campaign.

The young forward, who has enjoyed a successful spell on a dual registration with AFC Bournemouth having netted six goals in 12 games, halved the deficit in the first half with a composed finish after Olivia Maddocks and Neve McDonald had fired the away side into a two-goal lead within the first 15 minutes at Hotspur Way.

However, McDonald restored their two-goal advantage just before the half-hour mark before they further extended their lead in the second half - McDonald sealing her hat-trick before Maddy Duffy wrapped up the victory for the Reds in our final home game of the season.

Alongside Eloise returning to the starting XI, Faye Fields-Davies made her first start of the campaign while we were also able to call upon midfielder Rania Oukriss, who was named amongst the substitutes following a weeks training camp with Morocco Under-17s.

Making a long trip down to the capital, the visitors were quick of the traps on a sunny day in north London and they had a golden opportunity to open the scoring on just four minutes when Sophie Jackson, who produced an excellent tackle to stop Libby Bermingham, was off her line and McDonald collected the loose ball, but could only send her effort wide of the target. At the other end, Mia Endacott latched onto an excellent ball over the top by Beatrice Cunnison, forcing Eva Spencer into a fantastic double save.

However, 12 minutes into the encounter, Liverpool capitalised on their strong start as Maddocks advanced to the right area of the box and, from a tight angle, she picked out the far corner to break the deadlock and, just three minutes later, they doubled their advantage. McDonald, this time on the left, raced into the box and calmly slotted into the bottom corner past Jackson. We responded well to the setback and pulled a goal back in the midway point of the half, Endacott with a lovely, chipped pass into Hall inside the box, her first touch took it around the on-rushing Spencer before placing the ball into the empty net.

Despite halving the deficit, we suffered another blow just before half-hour mark as McDonald grabbed her second of the afternoon, squeezing the ball underneath Jackson and into the back of the net. Searching for a way back into the contest, we made a double change at the break as Oukriss and Cairo Eva-Antoine were introduced, and the latter found the woodwork 10 minutes into her cameo on the pitch, showing terrific pace down the left to beat her defender but her shot from a tight angle was pushed onto the post by Spencer.

We continued to push for an equaliser, Endacott forcing the visitors’ shot stopper into a low save at her near post, but as we entered the final quarter-of-an-hour, Liverpool ran away further with their advantage as a cross from the right caused chaos inside our box and, despite the best efforts of Jackson to push the initial effort onto the bar, McDonald managed to force the ball home from close range to grab her hat-trick in the contest. Then, with seven minutes remaining on the clock, the visitors added a fifth when Duffy tapped home from inside the six-yard box following a low cross from the left, strengthening Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table ahead of the final game week next Wednesday.

“It’s certainly not what we want in terms of outcome and a 90-minute performance”

“We were not good enough in the first half, we managed to get ourselves back into the contest, but we unfortunately conceded again before half-time and, I think, the whole performance in the first period was quite loose and some errors that ultimately led to goals and give you a bit of a mountain to climb. The second half was such a vast improvement and in fact, for the first 25 minutes after the restart, we were really good and just needed to get something for our efforts. Unfortunately, we conceded a couple more, a bit against the run of play and some poor technical and tactical decisions. So, all in all, it’s certainly not what we want in terms of outcome and a 90-minute performance, we felt short in the game and there was a changing room of players who were very upset with that after the game.”