In a hotly-anticipated encounter in front of the TV cameras, both Notts County and Arsenal Ladies stepped up to the plate, producing two impressive goals in a 1-1 draw at Meadow Lane on Thursday night.
The first came from a set piece straight off the training ground. Captain Laura Basset looked ready to strike the free kick before arguing with team mate Alex Greenwood, who calmly rolled the ball to her left for Ellen White to turn on to and fire home.
The strike, which sailed in to the bottom corner, was not only White’s first WSL goal for County after a lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury, but also her first goal against former club Arsenal, who she left more than 15 months ago.
White then had the chance to double County’s lead less than two minutes later when she was brought down in the penalty area by Arsenal’s Jemma Rose, but adrenaline was running high for the striker and a lack of composure meant she sent the spot kick wide.
The sides went in to the break with County on top and not just in terms of the scoreline. The Gunners had looked distinctly lacklusture in the first half and had rarely threatened Carly Telford in the hosts’ goal.
It wasn’t until the addition of new signing Chioma Ubogagu on 64 minutes that Arsenal looked like getting anything from their opening league game.
Ubogagu, a life-long Arsenal supporter, made an instant impact, causing County problems with her pace and trickery, and testing Telford with a curling effort on the edge of the box.
Up the other end, the Pies nearly caught out their opponents again with a dangerous free-kick from Danielle Buet, but the strike took a deflection and went out for a goal kick.
As the impressive crowd of 1,612 at Meadow Lane roared their team home in the closing stages, Ubogagu found a pocket of space 20 yards out and struck the ball on the half-volley, to spoil the party for Notts and their manager Rick Passmoor.
Ubogagu’s goal was her first for the club since joining in February from the United States.
Passmoor said of the equaliser: “We were badly positioned for their goal but it was a good goal.”
“A point against Arsenal, I’ve got to be happy with that as they will be up there come the end of the season in the WSL.” He added.
“I’m perhaps a bit disappointed not to have the three points because I think our attitude and work-rate and our first-half performance could have given us that.
“Score the penalty and go two up and it’s a completely different game. Credit to Arsenal, they managed the game in the second half, not to create the chances but to retain the ball a lot more than they did in the first half, and so they gradually improved.”
