Slough Ladies outdoor and indoor action – Feb 14: Mike Haymonds reports:

Slazenger EHL Premier
Clifton (0) 2
Slough (0) 1

SLOUGH Ladies’ hopes of a place in Europe next year took a further knock as they lost to Clifton for the third time this season and slipped two places to fifth.

Clifton, who had already beaten Slough in the league and cup, came from behind to make it a treble success and take third spot, their highest placing for some years.

Slough were denied the chance to improve their position when Sunday’s home game with Canterbury was postponed as the pitch watering system failed.

Slough are now eight points adrift of second place and face a backlog of fixtures in March, including two double-header weekends.

Slough skipper Fiona Greenham said: “It was a disappointing result as we had enough chances to win.

“I’d hoped we could go into the coming indoor weekend in Europe with a win behind us.

“March is going to be a tough challenge for us.”

Clifton were in attacking mode from the start but Slough edged the goalless first half in which both sides had chances.

From the restart Slough withdrew Mandy Nicholson into a two-man central midfield with Greenham and the move paid off in the 46th minute when they took the lead.

A pass from Greenham to Steffi Cordier brought a shot from the German, saved by the keeper, with Jane Smith tucking away the rebound.
However, a minute later, Clifton were level when lax defending by Slough gifted Leah Wilkinson the equaliser.

Both teams continued to create chances but Clifton got the winner on the hour when they intercepted a Slough free hit and launched a counter-attack finished by Abi Welsford.

Slough were denied the point they deserved when they had a late ‘goal’ disallowed following a penalty corner flick by Smith and an Ashleigh Ball follow-up ruled out as illegal.

SLOUGH: Ellis, Coulson, Cox, Greenham, Harte, Scott, Ball, Bowe, Nicholson, J Smith, Penny. Sub: Cordier. Not used: Filochowski.