Hat-tricks from Jade Cross and Alice Keitley and solo efforts from Lyndsey Glover and Sophie Bramford saw Wolves breeze past the former league leaders Leicester United at Castlecroft.
The hosts started brightly and a lucrative 10-minute spell for Dan McNamara’s side saw them three goals ahead at the break.
Glover broke the deadlock inside 12 minutes as she steered the ball past the goalkeeper following Cross’ lay-off, just the reward for Wolves’ positive start.
Just a minute later, the home side doubled their advantage as Cross got on the end of a defence splitting pass and finished confidently past United keeper Hannah.
It wasn’t long before Cross bagged her second. Some fine movement outside the penalty area as she jinxed her way past the opposition defender and slotted her effort convincingly into the far corner.
It was more of the same from Wolves in the second period who extended their convincing advantage.
Keitley notched two in two minutes early in the half, her first came from following home after Cross’ close-range effort was saved before smashing the ball past Hannah when played through on goal to get her second shortly after.
Substitute Sophie Bramford made a fine impression, producing a superb strike from long-range into the bottom-right corner for Wolves’ sixth of the encounter.
The final 10 minutes saw the two girls on their braces both seal their hat-trick; first Cross who rounded the goalkeeper before completing the simple task of slotting the ball home, then Keitley who cut inside onto her right foot before lashing her shot into the top-right corner.
Jamilla Palmer had an opportunity to get on the scoresheet from the penalty spot in stoppage time, however a stunning save from Hannah denied her from notching Wolves’ ninth.
Moment of the match
Jade Cross’ hat-trick sealing goal was the highlight of this game. The goal itself wasn’t even her best of the afternoon however the hat-trick was just what the striker deserved after a truly excellent performance.
Reaction
Manager Dan McNamara was delighted with the response from his side following the disappointing defeat to TNS in mid-week.
He said: “It was a big game for the girls today. We were obviously massively disappointed with the result in mid-week and it wasn’t just the result, it was the attitude of the girls we were a little disappointed with.
“We asked them for a response, and it doesn’t come much better than a clean sheet and eight fantastic goals so I’m really proud of them today.
“I’m really not interested in what other people are doing at the minute. We just have to keep focused on ourselves and today we set the benchmark, so we have to kick on from here.
“We were excellent in all areas of the field, dominated the game so we’ll be calling on this one to motivate the girls going forward.
“The best teams coach themselves to be hard to break down and hard to score past so to concede six in the opening three games was a massive disappointment for myself.
“I reminded them at half-time that the chances will always come so don’t worry too much about adding further goals, however I want us to be solid and defend for our lives to preserve the clean sheet. We were very rarely troubled today so that’s credit to the girls for an outstanding work-rate.”
Coming up
Next up for Wolves Women is back-to-back away fixtures versus Leafield Athletic and Bedworth United, before returning to Castlecroft for a home fixture against Doncaster Rovers Belles on the 29th September, 2pm kick off.
Next five
15/08 | Leafield Athletic (A)
22/09 | Bedworth United (A)
29/09 | Doncaster Rover (H)
09/10 | Sporting Khalsa (H)
20/10 | Solihull Moors (A)
Teams
Wolves: Thomas, Widdal, Buck, E. Cross, Jones (Bramford 65), Jennings, Keitley, Barnett (Haynes 70), Glover, J. Cross, Palmer.
Unused subs: Morphet, Anslow, Price.
Leicester: Hannah, Kenney, Morgan, Fletcher, Bartle, Mugridge, Hurst, Heria, Robinson, Cropper, Hickey.
Subs: Gibson, Cocking, Reek, McIntosh, Cropper.
Report by George Coombes
