UCLan Ladies 1sts lost 4-0 in their first match of the season against Leeds Met Carnegie.

The visitors started strongest seeing one shot go over the bar and another good chance go begging when they couldn’t apply the finishing touch after some good work down the right side saw a dangerous cross flashed into the UCLan area. Central defender Catherine Gibbs also had to clear two good opportunities.

Leeds managed the breakthrough 10 minutes in when UCLan goalkeeper Chrissi Workman failed to gather the ball allowing the Carnegie forward to nip in to make it 1-0.

The goal seemed to kick start UCLan into gear with forward Hannah Paling displaying good skill on the byline. She put a dangerous cross into the box which had to be dealt with by the opposition keeper.

Captain Keira Davis then tried to rally the team calling for them to quicken the pace of their attacks and the effect was instant with UCLan coming close twice in quick succession.

UClan then had their best opportunity of the game with Paling again doing well down the wing putting a good ball into the box which fell to Becky Hale whose turn and shot had to be saved well by the feet of the Leeds Met Carnegie keeper.

The UCLan fight back had the opposition coach worried as he demanded more width from his team.

Early in the second half Leeds scored two quick goals to settle the game. The first was a shot into the top left of the net with the second a fantastic chipped effort.

From then on UCLan rarely threatened their only chance of note being when Abbie Benson was put through but a Leeds defender managed to get across to clear the ball before she could get a shot away.

After the game UCLan Coach Mike O’Neil said “This was out first match and it was Leeds third, we’ve only had a couple of training sessions and haven’t trained on a full grass pitch yet so I’m pleased. We we’re promoted last year and are now one of the few UCLan teams playing in a 1A league”