In the event, Dave’s ultimatum inspired a unanimous backing. The only member of the 16-girl squad not to attend was Ruby Rudkin, who had been quick to point out that it was due to a longstanding knee niggle; Amy Hallett was willing but waylayed by satnav, frantically phoning through her determination to attend. Her delayed arrival confirmed Anna Kauffman, who had impressed in training, would return at right-back alongside Hannah Hutchison, Millie Theobald and Saskia Brewster.
It also meant that, with potential keeper Coffee busy elsewhere for the first half, Teddington needed a stand-in between the sticks. Considering goalies need ball-handling skills, bravery and a little bit of madness, it made sense to ask Emily Bashford, who cheerily agreed.
That minimised the need for changes elsewhere, although with four substitutes (when Amy finally made it) the management had a strong hand to play, and shuffled it successfully throughout the afternoon.
Sadie Day’s starting slot was a reward for her strong sub showing the previous week, along with a typically tenacious training session on the Friday; although she didn’t think she could play on the left, her frequent flights down the touchline took the game to Fleet and opened space for colleagues; Sas in particular benefited from the chaos caused by the beavering Sadie.
However, it was the home side who opened the scoring after six minutes. Clearing a Teddington corner, Fleet broke through the swift No.11 and skilful No.14, who finished past a helpless Bash.
Things might have got worse a couple of moments later when the No.11 outpaced the Teddington defence but shot wide, but that was the key for the visitors to tighten up – literally, getting closer to the two forward players and cutting off their room to turn. And after 12 minutes, the visitors were deservedly level.
It wasn’t a goal to bother the compilation producers; although Ella Dodd did well to turn Ella Bothamley’s corner goalwards, what followed was a brief but mad scramble before Giulia Clini poked home from a ball’s width.
It’s was Giulia’s first goal in five since her strike against the same opponents on Jan 8. In fact, Fleet must be sick of the sight of her: she’s scored in three of the four games against them this season, and in the other – the Cup win – she really hit her stride as a hard-working, physically unafraid No.10, helping to pen them in for the game-changing equaliser.
In front of her, Doddsy was starting to impose herself on the defence; indeed, she might have put Teddington in front with an ambitious attempt at a lob when Fleet couldn’t cope with the bouncing ball. The visitors were linking up nicely; inspired by the recent overlapping success of Saskia on the other side, Coffee was picking her moments to burst forward and give Liz Kriebel another passing option outside Boz.
For her part, after a quiet start Boz was starting to find her range, fizzing a couple of shots wide from distance. And the research paid off in the 33rd minute, when an on-target effort deceived the goalkeeper to give Teddington the lead. Sadly, it lasted less than a minute before Fleet’s forward was allowed to cut unchallenged across the edge of the area and fire in her own shot past the blameless Bash.
By now, the visitors were ringing the changes, with players being withdrawn not as punishment but as recuperation. Ale Fairn replaced Doddsy, who had taken a painful whack to the lower back; soon after, Millie MacEacharn replaced the tiring Sadie and Emily Coulson came on to rest Giulia.
The half-time team talk might have been somewhat spoiled had a fierce Fleet shot in injury time not been saved by Bash swiftly shifting to her right to stop it. The volume of the cheer from the visiting supporters was matched by the breadth of Bash’s beaming smile. Fearless and blameless, Bash had, as usual, rewarded the faith shown in her.
Still, the pre-game agreement had been for two stand-ins to share the duties, so at the turnaround Coffee became Teddington’s fifth goalkeeper of the season (last time Ruby couldn’t make it, Doddsy and Liz shared the gloves). That created space for Amy to impress in her increasingly comfortable right-back position, while Bash stretched her legs on the right wing. allowing Boz to rest to an impressively strong bench of attacking options alongside Doddsy, Giulia and Sadie.
For all that weaponry, Teddington nearly retook the lead two minutes after the restart through a less heralded name. In addition to organising the defence, Hannah Hutchison has spent the season making late runs into the box to meet corner-kicks. One day she’s going to hammer one through the back of the net and that day nearly arrived at Fleet, where her effort was scrambled away; Ale reset for Carla’s rising left-foot shot to demand a solid save from the keeper.
Five minutes in, Teddington regained the lead for good – and in a reverse of the game’s opening goal, it came from a Fleet corner. Building down the right through the persistence of Amy, the perception of Liz and the pace of Bash, the visitors worked the ball up the flank until Liz could see the whites of the goalposts, at which she opened up from the corner of the box and finished into the far corner.
As is usually the case between these two teams who have so often been closely matched, Fleet weren’t quite done. The hosts might have equalised within three minutes when a cross cleared Coffee, but Amy was calmness incarnate, clearing from inside her own six-yard box despite simultaneously receiving a whack to her left ankle. That typified Teddington’s tenacious determination to hold their own and stand up to a physical, which is not to say dirty, opposing team.
From there, barring an intriguing incident in which Millie T appeared to foil a break by tackling a forward with her head, it was mostly Teddington, with increasingly accurate efforts testing the goalkeeper. Emily was particularly unlucky to see a 55th-minute fizzer pushed away, and continued to threaten as the players around her were rotated: Doddsy replaced Ale on 62, Boz rested Macca on 64 with Bash switching left, and the newcomers combined excellently to present Emily with a volley which was again saved well by the goalkeeper.
With so many players doing well, it was difficult to nominate those to replace, but here the squad’s in-built flexibility helped: usually a No.10, Giulia is perfectly capable of playing in midfield, and on 68 minutes replaced Carla. Returning after last week’s absence on an impromptu half-term holiday, the battling captain had worked herself until her face was as red as her socks, and as she plonked herself on the bench she declared she never wants to miss a game again because “it’s boring”.
Seconds later, she had something to do: celebrate her midfield partner Liz completing a lovely fourth Teddington goal. Again it came down through careful construction down the right: the American found Boz out wide, the winger worked it to Doddsy in the area and the increasingly confident front-runner brilliantly held off her marker to set Liz for a 20-yarder into the opposite top corner. Liz’s double takes her to half a dozen, matching last season’s haul with seven games to go.
With seven minutes to go, Bash almost topped off her own eventful morning but her turn and shot from the six-yard line sped just wide. A minute later she was replaced by Sadie, arriving just in time to muck in with defending a corner, which was cleared for Doddsy to hold off a defender and calmly welly into the far corner.
Doddsy’s first goal in five – since her double against the same opponents in the game that set off a superb January – takes her top-flight total to 10, her deadliest league campaign yet. It also took her level with Emily as top scorer on 11 in all competitions, although Em almost snuck back in front in injury time.
The ref had given a free-kick right on the edge of the box for high feet. Liz immediately assumed the position, and when the ref signalled it was indirect, Boz was quick to sneak in and tap it to her buddy - who curled it past the goalkeeper’s dive and onto the far post. It landed at the feet of Emily, whose diligent follow-in run had left her unmarked eight yards out – but before she could finish the referee rather irksomely blew for full time, denying her a 58th goal in 77 career games.
No matter. Teddington have already scored 48 this season, just four behind their entire 2015/16 haul: not bad, considering they lost last season’s 13-goal top scorer Phoebe Head in the summer. Coupled with the departure of iconic leader Ella Waldron, the team has done superbly – as a team. Doddsy and Em top the goal table on 11, but Boz (8) and Liz (6) look set to eclipse last season’s returns, while Giulia (5) has added an extra dimension.
A healthier spread of scorers can make it harder to choose a team, but it’s a problem the coaches happily accept. Over in the egg-chasing, England coach Eddie Jones now speaks regularly of his “finishers”, players who start the game on the substitute’s bench but can change the course of events upon their introduction. Teddington won’t win the Six Nations, but they have displayed their unity and teamwork, and long may they give their coaches selection problems of the right kind.
TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Emily Bashford, Anna Kauffmann, Hannah Hutchison, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Liz Kriebel (2), Carla Novakovic, Ella Bothamley (1), Giulia Clini (1), Sadie Day, Ella Dodd (1). Subs Ale Fairn, Emily Coulson (1), Millie MacEacharn, Amy Hallett.
