London Bees registered their first win of the season on Wednesday evening, beating local rivals Millwall 2-1 at The Hive.
Ashleigh Goddard grabbed a brace for the Bees, scoring either side of a bizarre goal by Millwall’s Rosella Ayane.
Bees’ boss Julian Broomes made two changes to the side that narrowly lost out to Aston Villa 3 days before. Billie Brooks and Katherine Huggins started in place of Samantha Miller and Rebecca Anderson, who both dropped to the bench.
Millwall began brightly and Ashlee Hincks twice spurned opportunities to open the scoring. The best chance coming on 20 minutes when Hincks dragged her shot wide from 6 yards out.
But the Bees grew into the half and might have scored when Andria Georgiou let fly from 20 yards, but the midfielder’s effort sailed just wide.
Amber Gaylor caused the Lionesses’ defence further problems in the first half, testing keeper Sarah Quantrill on the half hour mark, before her cross was inches from finding Gemma Fraser, 5 minutes later.
The hosts’ pressure continued after the break and was rewarded on 50 minutes, Goddard bundling the ball into the net after Gaylor’s header had cannoned off the crossbar.
But Millwall equalised soon after in comical fashion, when Rosella Ayane jumped to block a throw-out by Bees’ keeper Imogen Riches, and rolled the ball into an empty net to score her 4th of the season.
Despite the setback, London Bees looked determined to earn that elusive first victory of the season. The winner coming 8 minutes from time, when Goddard looped a first-time shot over Quantrill from the edge of the box.
The win lifts the Bees off the bottom of the table and above Watford, who play Everton on Sunday.
The Bees now have a 6-week mid-season break and goal scorer Ashleigh Goddard believes their win was very timely.
“We knew there was nothing to lose because we were bottom of the table, so to come out and actually show what we’re capable of gives us a lot of confidence going into the second half of the season,” said Goddard.
Defeat for Millwall all but ends their hopes of promotion and the Lionesses now lie 6th, having won just 2 of their 9 matches.
Millwall boss Dan Milnar lamented his team’s lack of finishing. “The reason why we’ve not got as many wins as we might have had is just poor decision-making in the final third – we’ve got to be more ruthless,” he said.
“We didn’t master the ball well, we played the wrong passes and I just think if we’re a little more clinical and ruthless in the second half of the season we’ll win more games.”
