Page 18 - Women's Soccer Scene Issue No.34 2022-23

The Division One South title race in the Southern Region League turned out to be a close
one which went to the last match, where Badshot Lea ran out winners to be crowned as
Champions in their first season in the league.
Badshot Lea are managed by Jamie Norris, with Luis Emanuel as his assistant.
Megan Cotter and Deanna Taylor jointly undertake the role as captain whilst leading
goalscorer this season is Lucy Cook, with 12 goals in fourteen appearances, closely
followed by Nicola Moore and Beckly Munro who scored eight and six times respectively
from the same number of matches.
After having been promoted into the league at the start of the season, Badshot got off
to an impressive start by winning 3-0 away to Woking in their opening match. Indeed, all
of their first three matches ended in victories and Badshot also progressed in two rounds
in the Women’s FA Cup before going down to Abingdon Town, from the division above.
Badshot then suffered their only league defeat of the campaign, but never looked
back from that point. They rose to the top of the table but the finish to the season was not
an easy one and successive draws came in the return match with Woking and away to fast
improving Abbey Rangers.
The biggest match of the season was the final game as they travelled to AFC
Stoneham knowing that if there was an outright winner of the game, then they would win
the league and in the event the game was a draw then AFC Stoneham would win the title.
Previous encounters in the season had been very close with Badshot winning 2-1 in
the league fixture and AFC Stoneham winning 1-0 in the League Cup. After a hard fought
game and the best team performance of the season, Badshot walked away with a 4-1 win,
which secured the league title and the ladies being back-to-back league champions and
securing their third promotion in four seasons.
Badshot Lea squad: Rebecca Ansell, Eleanor Blake, Eleanor Chambers, Lucy Cook,
Ashleigh Cotter, Megan Cotter, Shakira Day, Annabel Giles, Jodie Gray-Piazza, Emma
Gregory-Barns, Steph Hamill, Nicky Jefford, Danielle Jones, Holly Montgomery, Nicola
Moore, Rebecca Munro, Marianne O’Byrne, Sophie Sutherland, Deanna Taylor, Jordan
Thompson.

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