Clapton CFC Women’s First Team lost out to title favourites Bromley despite a battling performance in the Old Spotted Dog Ground sunshine.
Clapton again started the game with just nine players on the field to mark the FA’s ban on trans players. Once back up to 11, the team almost took the lead on 5 minutes when Marta Casanovas cut inside, beat the keeper but saw her shot strike against the post and bounce away.
It was the visitors who made the breakthrough on 20 minutes, however, with Eleanor Hutchings getting on the end of a free-kick.
Keeper Ella Bowles made a fine save low to her right to deny Bromley a second before Emily Link hauled CCFC level just before half-time. On 42 minutes, she shrugged off her defender and hit a shot into the top corner that the onrushing Bromley keeper Charlotte Greenwood couldn’t keep out.
The visitors struck the post themselves on the stroke of the interval, but we went in level at half-time.
The game opened up after the restart, with Bowles busy in the Clapton net, while at the other end Leigha Bradding-Butler forcing a save and Lucy Spours firing narrowly wide from distance.
The decisive goal came on 68 minutes, when Bromley’s Daisy Monaghan bundled the ball home from close range after a cross from the right.
Deep into stoppage time came a third. Confusion over whether it was a throw-in or a goal kick saw defender Eva Van Der Vliet pick up the ball. The referee awarded Bromley a penalty, which was converted by Bethany Hull to seal a 3–1 win for the visitors.