Charlie Bill’s first competitive fixture in charge of Real Bedford Women began with a 3-0 victory against Ashford Town (Middlesex) in the Ledger Stadium sunshine on Sunday afternoon.
Real were starting life out in step four of the Women’s non-league pyramid, the National Women’s League Division One South East and they made relatively light work of Ashford in beginning with three points.
Since Bill has come on board, Real Bedford Women have invested in what is essentially a brand new squad, and the signings hadn’t stopped come match day with Sofia Stovold and Alex Dicks announced before kick off.
Stovold is another name to follow Bill from MK Dons and slotted straight into the starting line up while striker, Dicks joins from Northampton Town and began on the bench.
After a relatively serene start, in which Emma Vigolo was the only keeper asked to make a save, it was another new striker who opened the scoring.
Ashford failed to clear a corner and it was Abbie Bensted who was on hand to lash home and give the home side a 1-0 half time lead, despite a couple of late efforts from Moore that were kept out.
Brilliant Tivolo can’t keep Real out
The Ashford stopper was on hand again to keep Real to one but it wasn’t long Real Bedford doubled their lead despite heroics from Tivolo.
She kept Tricia Gould out repeatedly with a remarkable triple save but the former Dons striker scored at the fourth attempt.
It took her multiple goes but she eventually squeezed it past the keeper who was then stretchered off, picking up an injury in the process of trying to keep her side in the game.
It took a whole seven minutes for play to restart, and only in injury time did Ashford look as if they may have found a way back into the match, but what looked like a certain penalty was waved away by the referee.
Substitute goalkeeper, Riya Kantamaneni did brilliantly to stop Real from scoring a third late on, but with the clock ticking past the 100-minute mark, they got their third courtesy of a wonderful lob from Milly Hayes.
“The end product was lacking slightly”
“Ultimately, it was a good performance. We dominated large spells of the game”, said manager Charlie Bill after the game.
“We created some big moments but the end product was lacking slightly and if we go ahead earlier in the game, we probably dominate it even further but we’re a team who want to stick to our principles.
“Three points, three goals and a clean sheet to start the season as we step up into the Women’s National League, I think there are a lot of positives we can take from that.”
Real see themselves second in the league on goal difference, although not a lot can be read into that after just one game, but Bill is right in saying that goal difference and goals scored could play a part come April 2025, so any opportunity to score goals is welcomed.
The league continues next Sunday as Real Bedford travel to a tough London Bees who were relegated last season before facing QPR and Chatham, who also drop down to this level from step three.
