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| Superb league result but cup exit |
In a season where Viking South Utsira were already succeeding their most outlandish expectations by punching above their weight on their debut in the Xpert Ladies top flight, the Blood Eagles produced their best result yet and one of the finest in their long history when they took down the mighty Peach Blossoms at Ragnar Rock on Tuesday this week.
Anneke Hovland fired Viking into a surprise 18th-minute lead against a side who entered the game replicating their finishing position last term, 2nd behind Black Sabbath, but disaster struck just four minutes later when her strike partner Irja Klovning was stretchered off and had to be replaced with 22-year-old Novalie Austrheim. Nonetheless another player the latter's age, midfielder Ingeborg Bjørnsmoen, headed the Utsirans further in front after an hour despite the away side dominating possession. The Australians halved the deficit with 12 minutes to play through Eri Fukushige, yet just when the momentum looked like it might swing Hovland seized on a loose ball and hammered past Blossoms captain Beverley Morbyd to seal a startling 3-1 victory.
That not only lifted VSU above their beaten visitors into 2nd, but Sabbath's surprise stalemate at home to winless bottom side Wælcyrie Girls meant VelvetAndroid's team draw level with the leaders at the top of the league. The Blossoms meanwhile plunge all the way to 5th, in an extraordinary-looking table where just a single point separates all the top five teams after nine rounds of fixtures. Almost anything could happen in the remaining six games, which for Viking start with a trip to 6th-placed Queers United who are themselves only five points off the pace at the summit.
The league will be the only focus for the remainder of the campaign, anyway, after VSU's Xpert Ladies Cup run was ended on Saturday in the 6th round. In a tightly contested game they were edged out 1-0 by Carla Mota's 71st-minute strike for Ultra Violet LMW, sending CrashedCar's side into the last 16. It was a highly unfortunate draw for Android's women to have been given at this stage of the competition, given that UVLMW now face the 313th seeds Maggies of Division 4 for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Given though that the Violets are also well clear at the top of Division 1b and have a very strong squad still heading towards a peak, if Viking can manage to stay in the top tier this season they will almost certainly be witnesses to the same opposition being real contenders for the league title next time out...
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