Last season, Molesey Juniors were in a division above the new Teddington Athletic team. Fast-forward to the tail end of 2014 and Teddington are fourth in the top flight, motoring along well in two cup competitions and looking confident.
A lesser team might be spooked by this sort of fixture: a Surrey Cup Quarter-Final held under glowering skies at the Neilson Recreation ground, trapped between the Mole and Ember rivers and the Island Barn reservoir. Depleted resources meant Teddington only had 10 players – this from an original squad of 17 – and a communication mix-up meant they turned up in a mixture of home and away shirts (perhaps best bring both from now on), but the girls simply bibbed up and got on with it.
With such scarcity of resource, the team picked itself, although there was lengthy discussion among the management as to who should play where among these adaptable performers. In the end the formation showed few changes from the previous week's starting IX, with Millie MacEacharn replacing the sleepovering Phoebe Head and Amy Hallett in for Ale Fairn. Ella Dodd, Carla Novakovic, Emily Coulson and Sinead Morris continued in their various midfield roles, while Saskia Brewster and Millie Theobald minded the shop in front of stand-in goalkeeper Ella V.
Teddington would spend the first half facing into a strong wind whipping in off the Ember, but showed little trouble adapting to circumstance. In a taste of things to come, Emily had the first shot on target; soon after, she received the ball from Millie Mac and fed Sinead, who picked her spot but rolled it wide.
The template was set for the first quarter of the game: Teddington would regularly make chances then fail to take them. On occasion, this would be through inaccurate finishing, but mostly it was through determined Molesey action. According to this reporter's notes, in the first 23 minutes, the visitors fired in 11 notable shots, of which only two were off-target, two were cleared off the line and a startling seven were saved by the goalkeeper.
Again, such things might worry a lesser team, perhaps making them convinced that they are helpless hostages to fortune. Teddington tweaked – an injury break helped the management quietly divulge a tactical point or two to certain players – and continued to push, recognising their own ability to change events.
For all that, when the goal came, after 24 minutes, it wasn't a complicated affair: a somewhat rushed clearance out of the Teddington defence, onto which Amy ran, held off two defenders and confidently finished into the far corner.
A minute later, Doddsy almost set up Amy again, but Molesey broke and threatened to level – until Millie Mac brilliantly tracked back to break up the counter-attack, demonstrating the increased defensive diligence in the new formation. Even so, the visitors were relieved when a Molesey shot hit the post and was gratefully gathered by Jelly.
Soon after, the increasingly impatient stand-in goalkeeper was involved more productively. Dominating her area and collecting the ball, she passed to the left wing where Sinead beat her full-back and pulled back for Emily to calmly round the goalkeeper and left-foot home.
Teddington reached the turnaround two up and in control, and although the skies had cleared, they still had a fair wind at their back for the second half. Four or five chances came and went – including one for Molesey, well saved by Jelly – before the visitors extended their lead in the 42nd minute: lurking in the centre-forward position and anticipating a wind-hampered goal-kick, Emily duly collected the shortened clearance, advanced on the goalkeeper and left-footed home.
Four minutes later, 3-0 became 4-0 with more set-piece quick-thinking: a rapid Sinead throw allowed Doddsy to spin and fire in.
That allowed for a certain level of experimentation. After much badgering, Jelly was finally allowed to take off her gloves, swapping with Millie Mac (who would later make a couple of expert block-tackles in her own box – unorthodox, but effective). Ella Parkinson-Mearns had replaced Millie T in defence at half-time, but now Millie T came back on for Amy – with Emily going up front and Saskia pushing on into a midfield role she had readily expressed an interest in exploring.
Wonderfully calm on the ball, possessed of good vision and such two-footedness that she can almost absent-mindedly take penalties with either peg, Sas has the skillset to play further forward if need be, and this experience will have done her good. At one point, she almost scored…
She didn't, but Emily was certainly hoovering up the spoils. On 58 minutes she intercepted another goal-kick and finished left-footed for her hat-trick; four minutes later she calmly finished after Sinead dispossessed the right-back; then she intercepted another goal-kick, finished right-footed for her fifth and Teddington's seventh, and was immediately subbed for Amy. (Sitting on the touchline and asked how many she'd scored, she replied "Four" with more certainty than accuracy.)
And so Teddington march on to the Surrey Cup Semi-Final, at the end of the February half-term; they might also face a semi-final the previous week in the Capital Cup, should they overcome Denham in next month's quarter-final.
In the Surrey semi, they will come across Crystal Palace Blues – the South London side's second string, and more Division One opposition. Palace are no slouches, top of the league after 10 straight victories, and Teddington should take nothing for granted. They have worked hard to come this far and they are in the top division on merit; reaching a cup final might be a very good way to prove it.
TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ella V, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Carla Novakovic, Millie MacEacharn, Ella Dodd (1), Sinead Morris, Emily Coulson (5), Amy Hallett (1). Sub: Ella Parkinson-Mearns.
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