KU women’s football team positive for season despite first game defeat

Kingston women’s football team are positive about the coming season despite suffering a 5-3 home defeat to Roehampton on October 4.

The game at the annual mini varsity in Tolworth was the first after the summer break and a warm-up for the season set to kick off on October 11.

“Roehampton is a great team and I can’t remember beating them. We were short on players and still managed to score goals and do a good game overall. We are motivated for a good season and I’m proud of the girls,” captain Anna Ogland said after the game.

Ten minutes into the game, Roehampton scored the first goal, before missing a penalty after twenty minutes on the field.

Another 10 minutes later Roehampton set in 2-0 before Kingston’s Diana Marcela brought it to 2-1. Pauline Hontanosas equalised to 2-2, before sending the Cougars to a 3-2 lead after another five minutes.

“It was a fun game with loads of goals. Especially the first half was promising for the season ahead,” Ogland said.

After a slow start to the second half, Roehampton grabbed the equaliser 15 minutes in. After the 3-3 equaliser the Cougars fell behind and the fourth goal for Roehampton came shortly after. Hontanosas had to leave the field with a thigh cramp and Roehampton later scored their fifth goal for the win.

Despite several new players this season Kingston were short on numbers on Wednesday’s game, playing the last 20 minutes with only 10 players on the field due to Hontanosas’ injury.

“Unfortunately, some of our players have classes on Wednesdays, which makes it challenging for us to get enough people for the games,” president of the team, Adelen Jørgensen Sandli, said.

“We hope to sort that out before the season kicks off.”