Peterborough United Women scored a late winner against Boldmere St Michaels in the West Midlands to extend our lead over second place to five points with a game in hand still to be played.
The game started openly for both sides, though it was Hayley James was almost the difference maker inside the opening ten minutes when her curler hit the crossbar.
Lauren Wilshaw’s cross was then nodded back to Jess Rousseau minutes later, who cleared the woodwork from a central position.
There was little in the way of goalmouth action as we continued on; Keir Perkins’ shot went wide as we searched for the opener.
Yet our hosts clawed back control as the opening 45 minutes progressed – and we survived a couple scares, but nothing we couldn’t deal with.
The dynamic changed on 27 minutes, though. Ellie-Mae Locke was dismissed when Perkins nicked the ball from our hosts’ keeper and was brought down before she could get her shot away, and up stepped Niamh REYNOLDS to make it 1-0!
Boldmere’s substitute keeper was busy early into her introduction, first to keep out a long effort from Poppie Brown, before getting down low to stop Rousseau’s roller after our number seven got the ball out of her feet and drew a comfortable save.
Down 1-0, the hosts mounted a response and equalised before the break when Laura COOPER’s shot took a wicked deflection and ended up past Neive Corry.
Mia Lawson-Spencer looked to add to her team’s damage on either side of the break when she took control of a misplaced pass and shot wide.
The home team took the lead on the hour when substitute Keeley DAVIES was quickest to react to a ball over the top.
James and Reynolds both had shots snapped up comfortably by the Boldmere ‘keeper as we looked to make use of the player advantage.
ROUSSEAU levelled the scores for the second time when she picked up a loose ball inside the area and slotted home into the bottom corner, as we are so used to her doing this season.
Credit was due to the substitutions made by Jake Poole, who really gave a new dynamic to our play.
Just when all three points looked like they had slipped away, Tara KIRK was in the right place to head in on the line in the 88th minute, just three minutes after her introduction.
Of course, in a game like today with a lot on the line, tempers were always going to flare, and it happened so that Niamh Reynolds and Laura Cooper were dismissed in the final moments.
But we held on to secure all three points and give us some breathing space at the top of the FA Women’s National League Midlands table.
Posh: Corry, Connor (sub Osker 69min), Hines, Driscoll-King, Rousseau (sub Kirk 85min), Brown (sub Stanford 69min), Perkins (sub Rai 69min), Reynolds, Pitt, Wilshaw (sub Andersen 90min), James. Unused subs: Sharpe, Mears.