Swindon Town Women captain, Georgia Clifford believes that: “It’s referee decisions that cost us the game” as Town suffered a 3-2 defeat to top of the league AFC Bournemouth Women.
Bournemouth’s Katie James opened the scoring 25 minutes in as she shot from the edge of the box. Minutes after, Ellie Strippel weaved through the Bournemouth defence to score a rocket of an equaliser.
Then came one of the arguable decisions as the referee gave a penalty to Bournemouth as she believed the ball made contact with Clifford’s hand, Helen Bleazard converted easily from the spot.
In the added time of the first half another penalty was awarded to the Cherries as Gipsy Viveash was accused of bringing down an opposition player in the box as Viveash slipped on the ball, Bleazard stepped up to the spot and secured a brace.
Early in the second-half Swindon brought back a goal as Strippel whipped a corner into the box, striker Meg Jarvis back-heeled it into the path of Clifford to get redemption for the first half and her third goal in three games.
There was a last minute chance for Swindon Town as the ball fell to midfielder Jess Graham who wasn’t able to net the ball as manager Richard Wood believed they “Should have had something at the end but it probably didn’t fall to the right player”.
Wood’s overall thoughts on the game were: “I think the first half was a bit scrappy and we didn’t really execute our plan as well as we would have liked to. (…) We spoke at half time even though it was 3-1 and we asked for a second half that had passion and desire, and I’m really proud of the girls because that’s exactly what they brought”
He also suggested he didn’t agree with the refereeing decisions: “We were always going to say it but there were some decisions that went against us which were quite difficult for us to take (…) We really should have got something out of the game with those decisions going against us so I’m mainly proud of the girls.”
Captain, Georgia Clifford had mixed feelings about the day due to scoring and giving away a penalty but decided to be optimistic about the match: “It’s good (to score), I mean, it’s better when we win. Good to be on the score sheet, proud to be getting goals for this team. I think it’s (the performance) really positive, we should be positive.”
Swindon Town’s next match is Sunday, October 22nd in the Women’s FA Cup travelling to Liskeard Athletic at 2pm GMT.
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