Charlton Athletic’s bid to avoid relegation was handed a double boost after they picked up a deserved point against Lewes, while their rivals London Bees slipped to a 7-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester City.
Riteesh Mishra’s Charlton side began the game positively with Ella Rutherford testing Tatiana Saunders in the Lewes goal. A few minutes later the former Lewes forward, Jess King, fizzed a low ball across the goal but Shauna Vassell was unable to direct the ball into the back of the net from close range.
Lucy Ashworth-Clifford, the January signing from Lamar University, looked bright for Simon Parker’s visitors and in the 22nd minute she found herself in a promising position but dragged her shot wide.
The first half ended with no goals for either team and in truth neither really did enough to deserve going into the break ahead.
We didn’t have to wait long into the second half to get that goal that the game was needing. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that it was King who was to score the opener against her former side. In the 49th minute, Saunders failed to hold onto a Rutherford free-kick, it fell to King made no mistake from close range.
Charlton’s lead didn’t last long, in the 53rd minute Ini Umotong capitalised on some poor defending when Grace Coombs’ header back failed to reach her keeper, allowing Umotong to secure her third goal for the club.
At this point, I was expecting Lewes to raise the tempo of the game and exert more pressure on the home side but that failed to materialise as they sat deep and never really troubled Charlton.
The game petered out into a scrappy draw and in truth, neither showed the quality to deserve to take home three points.
After the game, Mishra explained that he had mixed feelings, “When we’re not playing well we tend to lose games and while today we didn’t play well, we were able to grind out a point. So I can’t be too disappointed but we still have to get better in a lot of areas.”
Charlton Athletic: Cumings, Newborough, Smith, Coombs (c), Clifford, King (Godden 75), Sampson, Rutherford, Vassell (Powell 66), Sulola (Griffiths 66), Heuchan
Subs not used: Dorey, Watling, Gotch, Eligon, Lumsden, Plewa
Lewes: Saunders, Boswell, Cleverly (c), Cousins, O’Rourke, Mackey (Leek 77), Rouse, Timms (Cross 77), Jones (Jhamat 77), Umotong, Ashworth-Clifford (Rood 65)
Subs not used: Hartley, Quayle, Hack, Savva
Photo: @CAFCwomen
