Paisley Athletic FC, Est. 2021, is a Women’s Pre-Professional Soccer Team competing in USL W League. Based out of Kearny, NJ aka Soccertown, USA.
In the third game of the USL W Campaign, Paisley Athletic fell 1-3 to the Long Island Rough Riders at home. In a physical, back-and-forth match overall, the visitors put up a more cohesive team effort to earn the win.
The Rough Riders came out aggressive with multiple shots on targets in the first ten minutes of play. Doing extremely well to test the home side, Paisley goalkeeper Erica Blackburn came up with incredible saves off her line and point blank. Stops by defenders Natalia Melilio and Mackenzie Meixner were also great momentum for the home side as they worked out the back.
Eventually, the Rough Riders would open the scoring off a free kick opportunity in the 16th minute scored by Bella Sember, her sixth of the season.
The rest of the first half would see a lot of offensive transitions from the Rough Riders with Paisley often struggling to make attacks happen in their own half. With several offside calls in Paisley’s flavor, the home side would earn opportunities to start connecting between lines.
Paisley opted to utilize the left flank, primarily midfielder Kylie Prendergast to win duels in the midfield and play the ball up. Another bright spot was Danielle Etienne, a midfielder that played with visibile confidence on and off the ball to shift the home side’s counterattack up until an injury forced her to sub out for the remainder of the match.
Second Half Scoring
Despite the loss of Etienne, Paisley would continue their good momentum into the second half, eventually with an answer to the Rough Riders in the 47th minute with a rocket to the top of the goal from forward Nickolette Driesse.
With a draw at the top of the half, both teams become increasingly aggressive on the ball. The Rough Riders began to press high, shooting long balls to catch the Paisley backline and make the most out of opportunities in the second half. One of those balls through resulted in midfielder/defender Jess Johnson disrupting the run of play with a rough tackle against a Long Island forward just outside the box. Johnson was set off with a straight red in the 67th minute.
It would be hard for Paisley to come back with ten players as the Rough Riders put the exclamation point in Kearny with two more goals nearing the end of the second half.
Next Up for Paisley
Paisley would look to earn their first win of the season on Saturday, June 3rd against Manhattan Soccer Club at The College of Mount St. Vincent. The team would come away with a 2-2 draw.
Paisley will take on the Westchester Flames at home on June 7th at 7PM ET. The full schedule can be seen here.