Brentford FC Women’s B Team had to settle for a 2-2 draw after Actonians Reserves staged a late comeback to burst The Bees bubble. The away side made things interesting after pulling a goal back with about five minutes left to play. With practically the last kick of the game, Actonians found the all-important equaliser after Brentford failed to clear their lines from a free kick.

The draw keeps The B team top of the table after three matches in what has been an impressive start to life in Division 1 North. Head Coach Will Blithing was understandably deflated after the match but believes there were a plethora of positives to take away from the performance.

He said: “There was a lot of positives to take from it. The whole first half we were dominant and kept the ball very well. Even in the second half where we didn’t play as we wanted to, there were some positive individual performances. ‘H’ in goal I thought was superb and Chloe at left back we thought was exceptional today; she dealt with their winger unbelievably well.”

The game was a tale of two halves as Brentford controlled proceedings in the first and went into the break with a comfortable 2-0 lead. The visitors grew in confidence as the second half progressed and eventually got the goals their pressure warranted late on.

It was a piece of individual brilliance that saw Brentford take the lead, on around the half hour mark. Pia Williams found the ball with her back to goal and spun the defender wonderfully. From around 25 yards out she drove the ball low and hard into the bottom right-hand corner, giving the home side a 1-0 edge.

Around ten minutes later and Brentford had the ball in the back of the net again. Perhaps encouraged by Williams shooting from distance, full back Lillie Elsbury tried her luck with a speculative effort from even further out. The shot was fumbled by the keeper who could do nothing but watch the ball agonisingly roll across the line, handing The Bees a 2-0 lead.

In the second half Actonians kept the home side boxed in and unleashed a barrage of strikes at Homira Najem in the Brentford goal. Their pressure paid off around 85 minutes in. They worked the ball well and eventually threaded it through for their midfielder to run onto, who then showed great composure to slot the ball into the bottom right corner.

About five minutes later the away side earnt themselves a free kick in a dangerous area. The ball was swung in and caused confusion in the Brentford box, after keeping the ball alive it was fired back in and tapped home to complete an unbelievable comeback.