Argyle Women and AFC Bournemouth played out a 0-0 draw on Sunday afternoon, but by no means was it a boring affair.
In front of nearly 1,500 fans at Home Park, both sides sought the decisive strike to break the tie, but neither could find the creative edge in front of goal to win the game.
The visitors came close in the dying minutes and would have gone away with three points were it not for Katie Wilson’s goal-line clearance, with Kelci Bowers just metres away from tapping home into an open goal.
The annoyed faces of those in green after the game show signs of positive change, as they felt the game against the side who came to Devon top of the league side should have gone Argyle’s way. However, Head Coach Marie Hourihan still highlighted the huge positives from the result after the full-time whistle.
“We’ve not lost the game,” Hourihan told Argyle TV. “We’ve taken a point and we keep our unbeaten run here going at Home Park.
“I thought we were excellent from the outset. The intent was to compete. We knew Bournemouth’s main threats across their top line and how it can be quite transitional, so we needed to control that. I thought we did really well.
“After the first five to 10 minutes, we settled into the game, exerted good control, and got into some fantastic areas. It was probably just the final details and decision making in those areas that we didn't get necessarily right and missed out on the outcomes we wanted.
“I think we came out with the same intent, in the second half, and probably similarly mirrored the first, in the sense that they probably had a 10-minute spell towards the end of the game where they came into the ascendancy a little bit.
“You’ve got to give credit to both defences. In terms of defending the box, both sides were very good at that with bodies on the line, clearances, picking up second balls, and being in and around the right areas. But again, for us, it's progress.
“Since I've come into this football club, it is about us going into games with real intent, a certain control, and asserting our influence over the game, and I feel we're doing that to a really good effect. We have to take the positives out of the game into next weekend's cup game against Watford, which again will be a similarly tight and difficult game for us.”
In the highest attendance at Home Park for this season, the Green Army came out in their numbers to get behind Hourihan’s side on Sunday afternoon. The Argyle Head Coach was delighted with their support and thanked them for coming out to the Theatre of Greens.
She said: “As I’ve said, it's a fantastic football club. The Green Army are loyal supporters, and I really do think they've come to an entertaining game today. They would've seen the commitment levels of the players and the technical ability as well.
“At times, some of the passages of play that we played today were excellent, and I just hope that they come back again, in numbers, for our next home tie against Maidstone United in the FA Cup.”
