AFC Unity again showed the spirit of the underdog after battling away at Brampton Rovers to gain a 3-4 victory.
The win turns around their goal difference and gives them six points from just three games, leaving them third in the Division Three table, just above next week’s opponents, Hemsworth South.
“As a brand-new club and an incomplete squad, we were already the underdogs,” explained manager Jay Baker. “But after the first game, I think everyone wrote us off, and the beauty of that was that there was no pressure any more – and to be fair, I’d been the one putting the pressure on by hoping for promotion. But the leagues are a strange animal with so many newly-entered clubs, and you get a real mix in this feeling-out period – there are teams in Division Two we believe we can beat, whereas Division Three has a steep drop-off from the top team to the rest of us.”
“We have our eyes up there,” Baker added, “regardless of being the underdogs expected to finish at the bottom – I want us to aim high, even if we come up short.”
Brampton Rovers and AFC Unity seemed fairly matched, and went into half time drawing 2-2. “After a loss and a win already, I suppose I’d have been content with a draw,” said Baker. “But at half time, I took a gamble and changed things up a bit, and I think those changes paid off when we went 4-2 up.”
Brampton were able to get a goal back, making the dying minutes of the game a real nail-biter.
“Yes, our coaches on the side were joking about having heart attacks,” Baker laughed. “But our players were able to dig deep and dig out another victory – they’re incredible people.”
In the end, it remained 3-4, with AFC Unity goals coming from Jane Watkinson, Shanie Griffith, Sophie Mills, and Lucy Strutt.