Durham full-back Abby Holmes says that collecting three points against Blackburn Rovers at Maiden Castle was the most important thing, despite the fact that she scored a brace in the victory.
The Wildcats ran out 3-1 winners as they ended the calendar year in second place in the FA Women’s Championship table, two points adrift of leaders Liverpool.
Durham fell behind early on against Rovers before two strikes from Holmes turn the game on it’s head. The first goal saw the defender travel 30 yards with the ball before curling a sublime shot into the far corner. Becky Salicki’s volley rounded-off the scoring with around half an hour to go.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match, Holmes said that while it was nice to score twice, ending the year with three points was the ultimate goal which had been achieved by her team.
“It feels good and it was just nice to help the team out really,” Holmes said. “I think that I probably should have scored against Everton and I said in the warm-up today that I felt good and that I was going to score one. I didn’t think I would score one of that quality but the tap-in from about three yards for the second goal evened it out.
“The most important thing was a really good performance, three goals and the three points which takes us back up the table just before the Christmas break.”
While Holmes surprised herself with the quality of her first goal, she revealed that it was a move which very much came from the training ground.
She said “It was a nice little play from Briggsy (Lauren Briggs) and I just kept driving as nobody came towards me.
“We have been practising in training, just getting the ball and driving with it and committing defenders. Nobody came and I heard Beth (Hepple) and Mollie (Lambert) screaming for it but I just thought ‘I’m going to hit this’ and caught it sweetly. Thankfully, it went in the top corner.”
The pressure was on both sides ahead of the game with Durham five points adrift of the promotion place and Blackburn Rovers four points above the relegation zone. Holmes admitted that The Wildcats simply had to win the game today.
“We knew today that we couldn’t leave the pitch without three points,” Holmes added. “We’ve had some good performances in the last couple of games but the results haven’t reflected our performances.
“It was a good performance, we scored three goals and I think that we thoroughly deserved the win.”
Durham return to action on 9 January 2022 when they travel to Lewes in the FA Women’s Championship.
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