Whisper it. Whisper it very quietly indeed, lest the footballing gods detect a whiff of cockiness and smite us with a thwacking at Hashtag next week. But the women have started very well indeed.
Brighton’s brightest starlets (the PGA stands for Pro Game Academy, it’s not their golf squad) took a good hiding here, with the Rooks well on top for the vast majority of the game.
The first half was almost relentless Rooks pressure, albeit with few chances to test Silvana Marshall Miranda in the Brighton sticks. At the other end, Emily Moore was barely troubled, bar one fingertip save she just about touched onto the post.
The floodgates opened in the second, and it was one of the new recruits that found the finishing touches.
Both of Rebekah Trewhitt’s goals came from balls across the box, which she converted at the back post. The kind of moves you imagine they’ve been practising hard down at the 3G.
The third goal was the pick of the crop, however. We saw a proper Thunderbastard from Finlay Chadwick at The Pan yesterday, but Olivia Carpenter would perhaps consider that a tap-in. She walloped one in from a good 30, perhaps 35 yards out, her shot rifling in off the fingertips of the keeper. Lovely stuff.
This competition – the FA Women’s National League Cup – is something of a head-spinner, with no fewer than 22 groups of four teams trying to get through to the knockout stages. The 22 group winners and the 10 best runners-up comprise the last 32 – it could be a real head scratcher trying to work through those permutations on the final day of the group.
We’ve got Worthing to come in that competition, but it’s back to the league next weekend. We’re not doing badly in that, either. But that’s enough fate goading for one match report.
Lewes: Moore, Harvey, Priest, Godfrey, Brant, Schreimaier, Roche, Lane, Trewhitt, Howells, Ferguson
Subs: Banaras, Rolf, Carpenter, Rowe, Bell, Gilligan, Edward’s
Supporters Club player of the match: Rebekah Trewhitt, a firm believer in nominative determinism if her two goals are anything to go by