Georgie Knott

Report | Argyle Women 2-1 Lewes

Argyle Women picked up a vital three points with a hard-fought victory at home to Lewes on Sunday.

Two first-half goals, one from Charlotte Whitmore and one for Georgia Wilson, placed the Greens in a strong position for a win. Despite a Hannah Godfrey goal causing a few scares amongst the Green Army in attendance, Argyle held on and saw the game out for a big three points.

A fast start from the Pilgrims, mainly through Whitmore on the right wing, caught the visiting side off guard. Argyle’s number seven ran behind Lewes's defensive line multiple times, the first coming in the opening two minutes. Whitmore burst through but a mistimed ball across the face of the goal could not quite meet the run of Fern Orchard, who was trying to sneak between two of the Rooks’ recovering defenders. 

Despite having a flurry of attacks, Lewes were unable to cause any major problems throughout the opening quarter of an hour. For Argyle, they came in abundance, often on swift counters. Sarah Harvey was shown a yellow card for bringing down Wilson, who had done extremely well to flick the ball past the Lewes defender initially, and the booking would come into play later in the game. 

Roxy Thomas delivered an excellent ball into the box, but it was cleared away by the visitors. Lewes soon had a potential chance of their own down the other end of the pitch, but a superb challenge from Caitlin Smith halted any forward progress for Skye Bacon.

A minute later, the ball was back in the Lewes third and, this time, in the back of their net. Ellie Sara’s precise throughball was met by Whitmore, and the forward finished through the onrushing Emily Moore in Lewes’ goal. 

Lewes answered with chances for Olivia Carpenter and Paula Howells, but Lily Felgate could not be beaten. Argyle’s number one managed to get low on multiple occasions and save all efforts at goal through the opening 45 minutes.

With half-time on the horizon, Argyle doubled their advantaged. Sara ran through on goal and saw her effort saved by Moore, but following up was Wilson, who tapped home to make it 2-0 at the interval.

After the break, the game continued to be back and forth, with both sides hunting for an important goal to change the game’s outlook. Neither side could find the back of the net before the hour-mark but, a few minutes later, Lewes were back in the tie.

After winning a corner and delivering into the area, the bouncing ball found the feet of Godfrey who slotted home to give Lewes a lifeline. 

A feisty few minutes soon followed the celebrations. Ella Stephens was shown a yellow card for an incident after the referee’s whistle, but Abigail Freullet was not finished showingcards. A late challenge by Harvey, on Whitmore, resulted in the former’s second yellow card of the game, with the number 16 sent walking down the tunnel early.

Whitmore and Wilson then had key chances to push the Argyle lead back to two goals, but neither could. The Greens’ number seven was gifted the ball on the edge of the box by Lewes, but her quick effort at goal was over the bar.

As for Wilson, the midfielder volleyed the ball towards goal, after it was bouncing in the area, forcing Moore into a save. The ball spun off the keeper and towards goal, however, which needed to be cleared away by a Lewes body.

For the remainder of the game, Argyle continued to break down any Lewes attack and with most fans biting their nails in anxiousness, the full-time whistle was blown and the three points stayed in PL2.

Argyle: 1 Lily Felgate, 3 Roxy Thomas, 5 Giota Papaioannou (capt), 7 Charlotte Whitmore, 8 Imy Crawford, 9 Ellie Sara (24 Ava Kuyken, 77), 10 Georgia Wilson, 15 Georgie Knott, 16 Ella Stephens (2 Katie Dickson, 72), 20 Fern Orchard (17 Lulu Jarvis, 65), 26 Caitlin Smith. Substitutes: 13 Grace Smith, 19 Erin O'Shea, 25 Jess Geach.

Goals: Whitmore 19, Wilson 45

Booked: Stephens 66

Lewes: 1 Emily Moore, 3 Marie Brant, 4 Syndey Schreimaier (5 Izzy Glass-Oliver, 90), 6 Hannah Godfrey (capt), 8 Layla Proctor, 10 Olivia Carpenter (77 Leah Lane, 57), 14 Paula Howells, 15 Lucy Connolly-Brame (21 Katie Gilligan, 85), 16 Sarah Harvey, 18 Lois Roche (7 Kayla Ginger, 85), 22 Skye Bacon (11 Aderite Fatuga-Dada, 57). Substitutes: 13 Ella Hunkin.

Goals: Godfrey 63

Booked: Harvey 15

Sent off: Harvey 68

Attendance: 479