Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
ARSENAL Ladies became the first team to successfully defend the Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain Ladies League title since it concluded its second year of action six seasons ago.
They clinched the GulfWeekly & Citreon sponsored first division trophy at the weekend with two games to spare.
The team convincingly beat the Arsenal U21s 4-2. Goals scored by Katie Eames, Melissa Gut and a brace by Reema Al Qassab, offset two Theodora Walton strikes, to secure all three points.
Coach Liam Trigg said: “We are obviously delighted to have defended our title. Last season we had a 100 per cent record and we need to win our remaining two games to repeat it this time around. We have added a couple of new faces to the squad and they have done really well, and the players that have been around from the beginning have been excellent again, as usual.
“We wanted to win this title for Alex Ziegler, who was seriously injured during the campaign. Well done to Rama Salem, Reema Al Qassab, Lucy Hogg, Natalie Harake, Alex Ziegler, Alaa Alawi, Tala Fahoum, Janet Kellagher, Wed Al Jowder, Melissa Gut, Carala Jellema, Katie Eames, Sam Rule, Tamara Kawash; making a squad of eight different nationalities!”
In the other top flight fixture, TFA Joga, determined to finish as strongly as possible, came up against an improving Eastern Flames, and, with the addition of a couple of new signings, won comfortably too by 4-1, with goals from Huda Bucheeri, Anastasia Salinas and Alaa Dirazi, with a reply from Erin Dawson.
The second division table is now the one to watch out for.
Seef Dental have had a couple of setbacks, but started their game against the Gunners still sitting on top of the league.
They were two points ahead of the U18s who beat RCSI 7-0 on Thursday with goals from Darya Vyshegrodskaya, a brace from Ella Huckervale with her first ever league goals, and another two by both Latifa Al Khalifa and Naomi Atkinson. Seef needed a win against the Gunners and started the game with confidence, going ahead through Molly Bednarowski.
The Gunners struck back with Kia Hanahoe scoring the equaliser. With 12 minutes remaining, she again calmly placed the ball beyond Laura Bloxsome in the Seef goal to make it 2-1.
This makes for a very exciting end to Division 2, with the U18s on 14 points, and Seef Dental on 13, and the two teams meeting this evening.
