Albion Women were held to a draw by Real Bedford in their second pre-season friendly ahead of the 2026/27 season.
Rhianne Oakley opened the scoring with a cooly-taken penalty before half-time, but Real Bedford’s Faye Fields-Davis struck from range to even the score on Sunday afternoon.
Interim Head Coach Martyn Irvine was able to give new signings Naomi Powell, Lucy Day and Jess Collyer their first minutes in navy-blue-and-white.
The hosts were much the more dominant side in the first half, and that proved after just 20 minutes. Forward Oakley struck the post, before Rush, playing against her former club, raced through on goal, only to see her strike well-saved.
Abbey Jones was next to turn the screw, and sent consecutive attempts into the arms of the visiting goalkeeper, prior to Hannah George’s well-positioned free-kick soared over the crossbar.
Oakley, whose pace was proving too much for the Pirates to handle, was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area. She stepped up to take the spot kick and sent the Bedford goalkeeper the wrong way to open the scoring not long before half-time.
Irvine made two changes at half-time, and Real Bedford found more of a groove in the second period.
A shot flashed across the face of goal, which the visitors couldn’t convert at the back post. But Fields-Davis made the difference for the Pirates in the 67th-minute - she slammed a first-time shot into the top corner from the edge of the area to level the match.
Substitute Collyer, making her first Albion appearance, had a few sights of goal in response, but couldn’t convert any of them, and Oakley spotted goalkeeper Erica Meale off her line - only to see her shot blocked by a Bedford defender.
All in all, it was another positive pre-season outing. Irvine’s side are back in action in another behind closed doors friendly against Leafield Athletic on Wednesday evening.
Albion: Grimshaw (Clarke HT); Reynolds, Creaney, George, Haughey; Powell (Day HT), Rush, Jones (Downie 75’); Oakley, Rabjohn (Collyer 60’), Trialist A (Sharp 8’).
Substitutes: Harlin.
