On their first away trip of the season, Canberra United fell to a late goal by Adelaide United in a hard-fought game on a scorching summer night.
Michelle Heyman picked up her first goal of the season with a lovely first time finish as Canberra played some great football in their second round clash of the Liberty A-League women’s season.
The first half of play was action packed, as it produced two goals and plenty of great chances for both teams.
It was Canberra who struck first, as Chelsee Washington skipped past a few Adelaide defenders before slipping the ball through to Captain Fantastic, Michelle Heyman who finished smartly past the keeper, as she extended her lead as the highest goal scorer in Liberty A-League women’s history.
Four minutes later, Canberra had a chance to push their lead to two, when Margot Robinne intercepted the ball, got past a defender and squared the ball across the box. Unfortunately for the away team, the Adelaide goalkeeper got a touch on the ball that diverted it away from Laura Hughes, who was going to have a tap-in at the back post.
With Canberra looking in control of the game, disaster struck after goalkeeper Keely Richards made a superb 1 on 1 save, as the ball rebounded to Adelaide’s Nanako Sasaki who fired home to level the score.
Richards was in fine form once again, a week after her Player of the Match performance, she was making save after save to keep the home team out.
After a tense first 25 minutes of the second-half, it was Canberra who created the best chance to take the lead. Once again, it was Chelsee Washington pulling the strings, this time feeding the ball through to super sub Ashleigh Sykes, who just couldn’t find the back of the net, as the ball was parried out for a corner.
Grace Maher had two free kicks in the final 45 minutes that were agonisingly close to going in, as Canberra searched far and wide for the winning goal.
It was all Canberra late, with a barrage of efforts at goal but it came to no avail as it was Adelaide who went down the other end and got the winner through Emily Condon.
Adelaide United 2 ( 23′ Sasaki, (91′ Condon) beat Canberra United 1 (16′ Heyman)
