Written by Declan West.
Michaela McAlonie lit up the night with a spectacular long-range goal to give Southampton a 1-0
winning start to their League Cup campaign against local rivals Portsmouth this evening.
Portsmouth failed to learn their lesson from early Southampton pressure as a panicked
clearance fell to the feet of the Southampton number 10 whose audacious attempt nestled into
the top corner.
The travelling blues put up an early fight in the opening minutes of the contest, but the hosts
soon took control of the game and began to test Erhabor in the Portsmouth goal.
Mary Bashford utilised some tricky footwork to wrongfoot two Pompey defenders before rattling
the crossbar on 14 minutes.
The Saints were ahead five minutes later with a finish that bears replaying; a beautifully placed
strike from McAlonie.
The home side dominated the remainder of the first half as Portsmouth offered little
counterresistance.
Portsmouth then had the chance to level early in the second half. Miscommunication between
the Southampton goalkeeper and the back line left an open goal for former Saint Georgie
Freeland to aim at, but she couldn’t generate the power and the chance went begging.
The visitors grew into the second half and flashed a few half chances at the Southampton goal,
but Ella Pettit was left relatively untested between the sticks for the remainder of the game.
A flurry of late chances teased a Southampton second before full-time, but no such
breakthrough came.
Nonetheless, the Saints kicked off the cup run with three points. For Portsmouth, a second
defeat in as many League Cup games.
Speaking after the game, Saints midfielder Esta Roberts described tonight’s showing as “a great
performance”, but believes there is room for improvement yet.
“There’s things we could’ve worked on 100%… we need to be more intense and stronger in our
battles”
The sides play each other in the league in four days time where Portsmouth will be hosting.
“A league game where they’re fighting to stay up, we’re pushing for promotion…It will be a
tougher game”
Portsmouth will definitely need to be more aggressive in their next game if they’re to gain three
points and climb out of the drop zone. For Southampton, it’s an opportunity to climb into second,
and into the promotion places
Written by Declan West
