London Seaward fell to a 0-2 defeat to London Bees as we made our long-awaited return home after nearly a month away.
Prior to kick-off, Seaward suffered an early blow after new signing and keeper Daisy Strouts suffered a fractured wrist in the warm-up. With number 1 Alex Baker also sidelined due to long-term injury, defender Beatrice Rogers replaced Strouts between the posts.
The Bees started off strong, putting pressure on Rogers from the get-go with a free kick on the edge of the box, but Rogers was able to produce the save.
A few minutes later, we had the ball down the other end, winning a free kick just outside the box after a foul on winger Leila Awan. The free kick was struck well by Mia South but it went narrowly over the crossbar.
In the 15th minute, the ball was flung into our box, and Bees found their first goal of the game with a strike in the top right corner, leaving Rogers with no chance of making the save.
Cloe O’Brien attempted to catch the Bees keeper out in the 27th minute with a strike from far out, but the striker’s effort was collected by the Bees keeper.
Just before the break, London Bees thought they had doubled their lead, but were haulted by the offside flag. Undeterred by this, Bees continued their offence, forcing Rogers to pull off another great save.
Just like the start of the game, the away side started the second half strong, and they made it 0-2 in the 53rd minute. The original strike was saved by Rogers, but the rebound off the crossbar was headed in by Lanza.
The away side kept up the pressure with Rogers making a few more great saves to keep the score at 0-2.
Our best chance of the game came in the 76th minute as Laila Malcolm played the ball over the Bees defender to reach Awan, who was forced to take a quick shot with the keeper coming out of the net, but her effort went just past the post.
With an empty bench, the Anchors were forced to see out the rest of the game with 10 players after O’Brien picked up an injury with no substitutes left to replace her.
Despite being a player down, the girls held strong and kept the score to 0-2.
The Anchors return to action on the 23rd of February away to fellow league strugglers Ashford Town (Middlesex).
