The onslaught started innocuously enough. After eight minutes of largely uninspired football between Oxford University Women’s 1st team and their cross-city rivals from Brookes 1sts, the latter were awarded a free kick just over the halfway line. The ensuing restart was mis-hit, however, and fell straight to the feet of Lucie Bowden. Capitalizing on the error, Bowden sent a clever ball down the middle to Tina Gough, who was through on goal only to be abruptly halted by an impressive tackle from a backtracking Brookes defender.
The Oxford side built on this show of intent, and soon enough the Blues were ahead, with Gough latching onto a mistake made by the Brookes goalkeeper and putting them into a 1-0 lead.
A 1-0 win would have been sufficient enough. However, much to the joy of the hearty hundreds who came out to Iffley to watch the renewal of a crosstown rivalry on Saturday evening, the Oxford women continued to play on top form. By the time the full-time whistle blew, the Blues had run roughshod over their opponents, to the tune of an easy 6-0 victory that marked their fourth straight win in a run going back to last term.
The Blues seemed energized by their opening goal and firmly stamped their authority on the game in the proceeding moments, reeling off a five-minute stretch of possession in which Brookes failed to clear the ball out of their own end. That stretch was finally ended in the 15th minute, when Brookes’ attacking midfielder threaded a neat pass through three defenders to an on-rushing striker. But her path to the goal was stopped by an aggressive Anna Green, who sprinted to the edge of the box and easily smothered the attack – and Brookes’ only real chance of equalizing.
Two minutes later, the Blues doubled their advantage, with Gough again finishing the job. This time, she ran down a looping ball over the top of the defence on the right side and coolly slotted a left-footed shot just inside the far post.
With Bowden and Gough wreaking havoc down the right with a series of neat exchanges, it seemed only a matter of time before the latter would pick up a hat-trick. Sure enough, she did so, tapping home an easy rebound in the 68th minute to open the second half’s scoring.
Further goals, courtesy of Laura Jennings and Mandy Rojek, made it 5-0. Yet this still was not enough for the Blues, who continued to send numbers forward and scored a sixth goal with under ten minutes to play when a glorious Gough pass Jennings through on goal with a glorious pass, where Jennings tucked away her second of the evening.
In the end, it was such a thorough performance from the Blues that head coach Sarah Queralt found little to criticize. “It was all plusses today, there’s very little we can work from the negative point of view,” said Queralt. She also singled out the performance of Bowden and newcomer Katharine Nutman for their cohesion in the central midfield for praise.
Despite the Blues’ convincing victory, their inner-city rivals remain two points clear in their BUCS division with three fixtures to go. The Blues and Brookes are not done with each other just yet either, as the two sides will meet once again on 12th February in the Last 16 of the BUCS Midlands Conference Cup
