WEYMOUTH LADIES 12

SWANAGE & WAREHAM 1

WEYMOUTH Ladies stormed to a crushing 12-1 win over Swanage & Wareham Ladies in wet and cold weather.

Both teams were looking for a win after losing their opening games of the season, and it was Weymouth who set the tone of the match right from the whistle, attacking with focus and speed.

Weymouth opened the scoring on two minutes with Emily Austin coming in off the right.

After resetting, Weymouth quickly dispossessed Swanage from the restart, co-captain Anneka Bowles passing straight into the D for her fellow skipper Amanda Sullivan to touch it past the away goalkeeper for 2-0.

Swanage did manage to bustle through the Weymouth defence and halved the deficit when shooting past home goalkeeper Megan Eadon.

Weymouth, who were conjuring wave after wave of attacking play responded by scoring another three goals in the first half from Sophie Russell, Jodie Stone and Bowles to earn a 5-1 half-time lead.

The second half began exactly how the first ended, with Weymouth dominant and playing exciting hockey.

Clever passes down both sides from Julia May and Lynsey Melhuish lit up the forwards to charge into the D.

More brilliant and accurate passing play from Weymouth led to three more goals from Jemma Brunell, Sullivan and May as the Seasiders stretched their lead to 8-1.

Swanage had a little flurry of attacks late in the second half, gaining short corners, but solid defending and a reaction save from Eadon kept it to just one away goal.

With a hat-trick from Brunell and a final goal from Bowles, Weymouth scored the match a dozen goals.

After a superb team performance, featuring goals from seven different players, Weymouth are currently sat fourth in the league with a highly-anticipated match against Wimborne away next Saturday.

Player of the match: Jemma Brunell