Everton Ladies lose to last-minute strike

Oct 12 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON Ladies were defeated 2-1 by Rapide Wezemaal in their opening match of the second phase of the UEFA Cup in Belgium last night.

Playing against KFC Rapide Wezemaal, in front of their home crowd and in foggy conditions, meant it was always going to be a tough ask for Mo Marley’s side.

Winger Michelle Evans put the visitors in front during the second half with a superb free-kick, and it looked as though they were on the way to victory.

But when seemingly in a comfortable position, Wezemaal then equalised, following some sloppy defending by the Blues.

And then came a contentious penalty decision with two minutes to go, as Jody Handley was brought down in the penalty area, although her protests were waved away by the officials, and Handley was also booked for her protests after the incident.

Then with the last kick of the game, Wezemaal made it 2-1 and leaves the Blues with an uphill battle if they’re to qualify from the group.

“It’s a game we should have won,” said Everton manager Mo Marley.

“But circumstances meant we lost our discipline a little bit today.

“When you look at tournament football, we’ve shown our inexperience.

“We normally play game to game. But from a tournament football point of view, a point would have been valuable.

“But the players were taking risks, and credit to them – as we want to win every game we play, but I think trying to win the game cost us in the end.

“We should have probably just shut up shop and accepted the point and accepted that circumstances were going against us.

“We’ve found ourselves losing the game in the last minute. And as we conceded in the last minute, then there’s nothing we can do about it to redeem ourselves.

“Bizarrely, I’m pleased with our performance, compared to how we’ve been playing of late.

“It was a massive improvement, but defeat means it makes the competition that little bit harder.

“We have to raise our game for our next fixture.”

Up next for the side is the toughest of the three matches against Frankfurt, who have former World Player of the Year and record World Cup goalscorer Birgit Prinz in their ranks.

The match is set for tomorrow and kicks off at 4.30pm.