Southagte’s W1’s lost out on home turf to The Firebrands in a hard fought game ending in a 2-4 loss.
Andy Robinson’s side came into the game with confidence off the back of an unbeaten run extending back before December. Yet Firebrands arrived in Trent Park with fresh determination and with an early penalty flick awarded against ‘Gate keeper Louisa Bray found themselves in the lead from the 3rd minute.
Southgate clawed their way back immediately with a beautifully taken slap from a PC from Ellie Halliday to even the contest before Maria Andrews scored her second to give the Bristol side the lead going into half time.
Charlotte James-Pawjani helped Southgate back on terms again but the Firebrands again held their nerve with Andrews completing her hat-trick with her second converted penalty flick in the 50th minute before Rachel Barton effectively closed down the game two minutes later.
Ellie Robinson and her Southgate team wrestled hard yet struggled to connect the lines as they had achieved in their dominating performance against Barnes earlier in January. They face the journey to Slough this weekend as they look to turn the tables on one of the toughest results of their season when they fell victim to a hammer blow last minute goal from the visiting Slough team. A chance to right that result now stands in their gift as Southgate look to get back to winning ways.