Portsmouth 2-5 Saints

• Fratton Park
• 12/10/2025
• Attendance: 2,315

Scorers:

Portsmouth

• Wilding, 10’
• Freeland, 20’

Saints

• Ferguson 24’, 78’
• McAlonie 56’, 90’+6’
• Simpson 71’

Four days after a 1-0 League Cup win for Saints at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium, they face Portsmouth again, this time at Fratton Park in the league. In this fixture last season, Saints put 5 past Portsmouth.

Saints made changes, and, due to the good form of Issy Watts, fit-again Megan Collett was pushed forward, with Elle Brazil dropping to the bench.

The changes seemed a great move when, after just seven seconds, Collett broke free and outpaced the defenders as she ran down the wing; it was reminiscent of last season when she kept going until she’d scored at the near post. This time, she tried to square the ball to Atlanta Primus, but a defender managed to bundle the ball out for a corner.

It came as some surprise when, after ten minutes, Portsmouth scored from their own corner. The ball was fired in from ex Saint Georgie Freeland and appeared to ricochet off a Portsmouth player’s face into the net. Certainly, she looked as surprised as Saints did to see the ball hit the net.

Ten minutes later, Portsmouth got another corner from the same side, this time Freeland’s corner sailed over Fren Stenson’s outstretched hand, going straight into the net. Again, the Portsmouth scorer looked very surprised. The commentator blamed the sun for getting in Stenson’s eyes, despite the shadows on the pitch showing the sun would have been behind her.

Primus, being captain, pulled Saints into a huddle. Whatever she said it seemed to work as, three minutes after going 2-0 down Collett beat a defender to a bouncing ball and raced into the area, she was challenged as she tried to poke the ball towards goal meaning it went across the area where Abbie Ferguson collected it, she nutmegged one Portsmouth defender surged into the area along the byline, cut inside another Pompey player and then poked the ball under the keeper to score her first goal for Saints.

Ten minutes into the second half, Michaela McAlonie, who had scored the only goal of the game in the League Cup game, controlled a pass on the edge of the area, turned and fired in a shot which gave the keeper no chance to bring the score back level.

Saints were then on top, and in the 71st minute Jess Simpson got her first goal for Saints. She took a corner from the right, and just like Freeland in the first half, the ball sailed straight into the net to put Saints ahead for the first time in the game.

Very quickly, Saints were 4-2 up. McAlonie lobbed a cross in towards Collet, it was a bit high for her, allowing a defender to get a head to it, but she was only able to deflect it to Ferguson. She cut inside a defender and curled a shot inside the far post. It was a great finish, and she wheeled away in obvious delight.

Saints were in complete control and made it five in added on time. A rare Portsmouth attack was halted by Amy Goddard; her clearance found Primus, who by this point of the game had bandages on her thigh and head, but she was still involved in everything. She sent McAlone clear of the defenders, and she raced from the halfway line into the area, and as the keeper came out, lifted the ball over her into the net before running over towards the Saints fans.

They may have had a shaky start to the game, but they rallied, regrouped, and in the end, it was a comfortable win for Saints.

McAlonie and Ferguson were both part of the Hibs team that won the Scottish league last season, ahead of the three Glasgow teams. They may have taken a little time to settle on the South Coast, but they were both superb in this game and have certainly made the team look a lot stronger. In fact, despite having a very young squad, Saints look like a much better team than they did last season. This result moves them up to third, which will be a playoff place with the bottom WSL team at the end of the season.