PENDLE Forest played Broom on Saturday, knowing if they won they would definitely be safe from relegation.
Kayleigh McKane showed some great defensive work, managing to deny Broom a shot on goal against the early run of play. This set the the tone for this important fixture, and midway through the first half, Cathy Waters was awarded a green card for an unruly tackle, but made up for this by winning a bully off in the 25 yard area, setting up a well-worked move, finished by player of the match Fiona Head.
The second half brought good spells of play by both teams, but Forest took control and kept possession. They gained a penalty corner, and Head edged the ball in for her second after a great strike from Judith Hind.
Soon after Hind was sin binned for a late tackle. This saw Forest under late pressure, but some excellent saves from Jayne Kirkpatrick gave Forest a deserved 2-0 victory.
Forest then played Lancaster in a rearranged fixture on Tuesday evening.
With both teams mid table, safe from relegation, only pride was at stake.
Forest started well, and within five minutes Hayley Baines took on the Lancaster defence single handedly and scored a fantastic reverse stick strike that lobbed the Lancaster keeper and went into the roof of the net.
Forest did not rest on their laurels and continued to pass the ball around well.
The game descended into a midfield battle and Lancaster drew level when they scored a well-taken goal from the top of the D. Forest tired a little and found themselves on the backfoot, and a cross from the Lancaster right was defended by the Forest defence but a mistake saw Lancaster score a tap in to go 2 -1 ahead.
Lancaster were starting to exert their authority on the game, and a poor tackle at the back saw Sally Evans receive a green card and a penalty flick was awarded against Forest. Kat Gorman in the Forest goal made a superb save to keep Forest in the game, although Lancaster made it 3-1 at half-time.
Forest changed the line up for the start of the second half and this allowed them to make progress. A Lancaster player was sin binned for stick tackling, although Forest they didn’t make their pressure tell until Lancaster were restored to 11. Forest won a short corner, and Deb Bythell flicked the ball superbly over the keeper and into the top corner.
With Forest in the ascendency they continued to press, and when a quick free hit was taken, Bythell crossed the ball from the right and Karen Wignall got a touch to slot the ball past the goalkeeper.
Forest found themselves down to 10 when Clare Moores was sent off for stick tackling, and when she returned Jen Hobson was sinbinned for not retreating, but the game finished 3-3.
Forest’s last game of the season is against Morpeth tomorrow.