HAMMERS Ladies lost 3-0 to Millwall Lionesses in the FA Nationwide
Women's Premier League South, but were on the receiving end of
a controversial refereeing decision, which swung the match in
Millwall's favour.
The clash began as a very open and end to end game with the Hammers certainly demonstrating their improvement of late that has led to a three match unbeaten run.
Millwall's Jesse Holman had an early chance but this was easily dealt with by Hammers goalkeeper Claire Lacey.
At the other end Lindsey Morgan almost opened the scoring for the Hammers but her effort was just wide. There was another near miss for Lindsey when a few minutes later from a well taken Aoife Aherne corner she turned in the penalty area and fired just over the cross-bar.
It was impossible to separate the two sides until a bizarre Millwall goal on 34 minutes changed the whole course of the game. Claire Williams fired a terrific effort at goal but it appeared to hit the side-netting. The assistant referee flagged for a goal-kick and the Millwall players and supporters were applauding a fine effort that had gone wide. But to the amazement of everyone the referee awarded a goal as the ball suddenly appeared at the back of the net. Lacey and the rest of the Hammers were stunned as another Millwall goal sent them in 2-0 down at the break.
West Ham United Ladies' club secretary John Greenacre, himself a qualified referee, inspected the goal at half-time and discovered that the netting was not connected to the goal-post. This confirmed that the ball had not crossed the goal-line but had entered the back of the net via a hole in the side-netting!
Another Millwall goal just after half-time all but ended Hammers hopes of taking something from this game.
There were a few chances for West Ham in the second-half, one in
particular for Sam Pittuck but the first Millwall goal proved to be
the turning point as Hammers Ladies lost 3-0.
WEST HAM UNITED: Claire Lacey, Kate Turney, Carly
Roache, Lindsey Morgan, Julia Stetford, Stacey Crump, Nicola
Dunsdon, Aoife Aherne, Kate Fanning, Vicki Bruce, Sam Pittuck.
SUBS: Christina Oshikodi, Vicki Lewis, Natalie Grafton.
West Ham United Ladies will be hoping to bounce back as they take on Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday at the Withdean Stadium, kick-off 2.00pm.