Report | Oxford United 5 Argyle Women 0

Oxford United 5
Cook 28, 53, Oliver 40, Barratt 51, King 67

Argyle 0

Argyle Women fell to defeat at Oxford United on Sunday, with the home side taking advantage of the fact that the Greens had a player sent off in the first half.

After Lucy Hack was dismissed for receiving two cautions, Oxford grew into the match and began to dictate the flow of the game, scoring two goals before the break, and then pulling clear as the second half developed.

As rain poured down heavily in Oxford, both sides began to battle to maintain possession. Argyle proved to be the stronger side in the early stages, generating chances from deep and working hard to move the ball up the field.

Argyle’s first major chance of the match came from an excellent delivery across the area from Tamsin Medd-Gill, who found the run of Charlotte Whitmore at the far post, but the forward was unable to turn the ball goalwards.

After a long period of bombardment from The Greens, The U’s began to shift the match into Argyle’s area. Chances from set pieces proved to be a dangerous nuisance for Argyle, with corner balls finding their target, and flying past the woodwork of the goal narrowly. The momentum of the match changed drastically in the 25th minute as defender Hack received her second yellow card, subsequently taking Argyle down to 10 players.

As the tide of the match turned in Oxford's favour, it was not long before the home side took the lead via Izzy Cook, who fired the ball past Jasmine Read from close range. Oxford extended their lead further before the half ended through Taome Oliver, who found space inside the area to further secure their lead.

Oxford continued from where they left off as the second half began. Zoe Barratt’s finish in the 51st minute secured Oxford their third of the game, and their fourth came two minutes later through Cook who, after winning back possession in the Argyle final third, netted her second of the match.

Oxford's final goal of the game came from Sarah King, whose curled effort from range found the top right corner, beating the dive of Read.

Despite resolute performances from the Argyle players, who desperately tried to break down the home side on numerous occasions, being a player down proved too much for them to deal with as the whistle blew for full-time.

Argyle are on the road once more this weekend, where they look to bounce back from this performance with a win away to Rugby Borough.

Argyle: 1 Jasmine Read, 2 Katie Dickson (23 Katelyn Bell), 5 Panagiota Papaioannou (c), 6 Lucy Hack, 7 Charlotte Whitmore, 8 Imy Crawford (15 Georgie Knott), 9 Ellie Sara (20 Fern Orchard), 14 Tamsin Medd-Gill, 18 Taya Pomfret, 19 Erin O’Shea (17 Libby Waylen), 29 Mia Endacott (13 Grace Smith).