Sunday’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fixture gave us all the emotions of cup football, the Rebels injury time winner was a huge blow which came after the elation of an earlier equaliser from Amelie Mayani.
The teenager has created a piece of club history over the last couple of years, having graduated from Maidenhead United Academy through to the MUWFC Development team and into a regular member of Dave Kitson’s first team matchday squad. On Sunday, with Maidenhead trailing to a Worthing penalty, it took Mayani exactly thirty seconds after being introduced as a substitute with just under twenty minutes left to score with her first touch, a neat finish following a clever through pass by Megan Harper.
It was a thrilling moment in an otherwise disappointing game for Maidenhead. Modest Mayani reflected: “I got called over and told I’m going to go on. And basically within 30-35 seconds I had the ball in the back of the net with my first touch of the game. I remember seeing a gap between the centre-back and left-back and I curved my run, stayed onside. Meg spotted the gap and my run and she played a perfect ball through, and yeah first touch of the game, just inside the penalty box I slotted it through the keepers legs and into the back of the net. It’s something we’ve worked on in training and it’s really nice to see it pay off. I can’t really remember the feeling, it was just one of happiness and a bit of shock to be honest. It’s a great feeling scoring and especially being 1-0 down at the time, so getting the equalising goal so quick after being bought on is just….yeah!”
Personal glory aside it was a disappointing day for Mayani and her team mates as following the equaliser the match had a sting in the tail after a freak goal for Worthing at the death following a hotly disputed free-kick. Mayani – who has been patient waiting for game time from the bench this season – reflected: “Obviously we didn’t have the performance we hoped for and didn’t get the score we wanted. However, on a personal note it’s always great to get a goal and help the team out and it’s the first time I’ve played in the FA Cup.”
Despite having to watch most of the minutes of matches from the substitutes bench so far, Mayani has nothing but praise for new management team Dave Kitson and Sean Hillier: “It’s been good having Dave and Sean in charge. They’ve bought a new level and drive to the team which has set our standards higher of one what we expect from ourselves and in the games we play.”
Amelie has now made a good case to feature in forthcoming fixtures, starting with Sunday’s tough-looking trip to one of the FAWNL Division 1 South West front-runners Moneyfields.
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