After an extended christmas break due to the bad weather the ladies team made sure they secured 3 points to keep the promotion push alive.
Mid table Oadby and Wigston were the visitors to Grange Park and with the Blues having only 11 players available due to injury and illness, so the visitors could have caused an upset.
However the Blues knew the scale of the task ahead and set out with a winning mentality.
It looked a little shaky at first, both teams fighting hard for possession however it was the Blues that got the break, Hannah Draycott managed to slot the ball into the net after Jodie Hancock’s rebounded shot.
One nil up the Blues breathed a sigh of releif, albeit a small one.
Oadby did not loose heart and kept battling on, then their pacey right winger picked the ball up and ran at the Long Eaton back four. A slightly miss timed tackle saw Carly Hayes stop the Oadby player in her tracks as she was brought down just inside the box and the referee immediately pointed to the spot.
The Long Eaton stopper Cairo Hopewell stood tall but was centimetres from keeping the ball out of the, net. A jubilant Oadby team were back in the game.
Long Eaton were eager to regain the lead but struggled to trouble the Oadby keeper with the Blues only playing one striker.
They battled on through the mud and eventually they won a corner, Carly Hayes’ delivery was again pinpoint and Charlotte Healy met brilliantly to send it flying past the visitors keeper to put the Blues back in the driving seat.
At half time the scores remained the same although Oadby were still very much in the game as Long Eaton failed to capitalise on several occasions.
The second half became hard wok with the pitch cutting up, but Kimi Harford had the solution, as she found herself heading towards goal with no one closing her down she calmly hit a long shot which flew into the top of the net, nothing the Oadby keeper could have done.
Long Eaton tried to extend their lead, hoping to create a better goal difference which could prove important as the top of the table becomes very close, however chances came but a rusty Long Eaton side failed to capitalise.
Final score 3-1 to the Blues, a vital 3 points saw them go back to second in the league to keep themselves in the title race.
Long Eaton were victim to some dodgy offside decisions and some even dodgier shooting, however both these factors can be rectified for next week as they face a tough game away against mid table Nuneaton.
