Women’s Match Report: Royals made to work for Nike FC Cup progress

The Essendon Royals Senior Women’s got their Cup run off to a flying start with what, in the end, was a comfortable 4-1 win.

With several key senior players missing, the State League 1 Bayside Argonauts gave the newly promoted VPLW side a scare on a night that the Royals dominated, but often failed to show a cutting edge.

The Royals started the match with complete dominance, controlling possession and the game’s tempo right from the outset.

While the football was great to watch, they failed to create any clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities; the State 1 side proving challenging to break down.

Despite the dominance, the match was level at the break.

However, the Royals came out in the second half with renewed vigour, pinning the Argonauts in their own back third right from the outset. It took only 3 mins into the second half for new signing Sanja Trajkovska to overlap from her new role as a left-wing back for this match and latch onto a ball from Annabel Hosking to slot coolly past the keeper to ease Royal nerves and get some reward for the domination.

Instead of settling, Royals let Bayside back into the match falling asleep to allow them to equalise just 8 minutes later.

Despite Bayside entering the Royals half on limited occasions, they now found themselves level on 54 minutes and with a new optimism that they could get something from the game.

The Royals eventually showed their class, however, getting control back after a few scares and pinned the Argonauts back in their own third again; the pressure finally forcing a penalty after a foul on Mary Hubeek on 74 minutes.

New Japanese signing Ayano Koizumi slotted it home after having twice hit the crossbar earlier in the match. With the game now firmly in control, it took just four more minutes to make it 3-1, with Linda Sawa finishing brilliantly into the far left top corner after a deft flick-on from Hubeek.

The scoring was wrapped up with three minutes to play when new Kiwi signing Rosie Wild topped her excellent display with a well-deserved goal.

A solid result for the Royals in the end after resting several key players and blooding teenagers Anastacia Samaras, Olivia Ristevski, Eliza Vargiu and Lola Ferrante for their official senior debuts.