Badsey Ladies 1, Evesham 2

THIS was a typical local derby - played at full pace and with plenty of passion.

The teams were fairly evenly matched but Badsey took the game to the visitors early on and player of the match Claire Jones was at the heart of all their attacking moves, well supported by Karen Robinson and Zoe Hodgkins.

Good support from the midfield trio of Karen Hall, Karen Moore and Laura Moore kept up the pressure but Badsey were unable to make the breakthrough.

At the other end, solid tackles by Louise King and her defence prevented the Evesham forwards from making any significant inroads towards the home goal.

However, they did open the scoring when the umpire failed to pick up an infringement by the visitors and the ball was slid past goalkeeper Fiona McNeish during a goalmouth scramble.

Badsey fought back by increasing the tempo of their attacks and, on the stroke of half-time, they equalised through Moore who kept her nerve for a simple tap-in.

Tempers flared in the second half as both sides went looking for the win. Badsey had several short corners but were unable to capitalise while, at the other end, Wendy Hardy made one of her trademark goalline clearances from a corner.

It was Evesham who finally snatched the winner with a lovely shot from the edge of the circle.

Badsey have a break from league action for the next two weeks but take on Redditch in a friendly at Redditch on Saturday (1.30pm).