Yeovil Town Women continued their unbeaten streak in the league as they beat Bishops Lydeard Reserves 5-0 on Sunday. In a match which saw five different scorers, Yeovil showcased their ability to score from all over the pitch.
Paul Knight made one change to the team which overcame Wells in the Glovers’ previous outing, as Zoe Ball came in for Holly Coles.
A typically quick start saw Yeovil in front within the first minute of the game, as the league top-scorer Niamh Nicholls opened the scoring, for her 16th goal of the campaign.
Swiftly after this, in the fifth minute, Jess Hodge made it two for Yeovil, as she drilled the ball past the Bishops Lydeard goalkeeper, to net her tenth of the season and send the Glovers on their way to another three points.
As the first half reached the halfway point Yeovil had three, as Becca McManus found Zoe Ball, who after being rewarded with a start, shot across the goalkeeper and found the far corner.
In the 39th minute Yeovil’s penalty woes this season continued, as Jess Hodge saw her spot-kick saved.
Following this, on the stroke of half-time substitute Holly Coles made it 4-0 after some excellent play from Zoe Ball.
The Glovers went in at the break four goals to the good.
Yeovil’s first real chance of the second half came to Niamh Nicholls in the 60th minute, as she fired her effort over from inside the box.
The fifth of the afternoon arrived eight minutes later courtesy of Abbie Carslake, who finished off Laura Cheesman’s inviting ball across, for her fourth goal of the season.
In a match which could have seen many more goals, Yeovil maintained control throughout and ran out 5-0 winners to make it eight league wins in a row.
The player of the match was awarded to Becca McManus for a determined midfield performance, winning the majority of her duels in the middle.
Yeovil Town Women manager Paul Knight said after the match: “Gritty performance, at the end of the day 5-0, I don’t want to sound disrespectful to the opposition, but we can do a lot better than that in terms of our clinical play on the pitch, the girls know that. I feel the lack of games over the previous weeks due to postponements has slightly hindered our performance, however this group always manages to both entertain and deliver.
“Overall, well chuffed with the team in terms of the result, I think for us as coaches we have things we need to think about for the new year and we’ve just got to keep the momentum going and just hope that the games keep coming with the weather that we’ve got.”
Sunday’s player of the match Becca McManus said: “I enjoyed the game, I love playing with these girls, we’ve been working on rotational play in the midfield and that’s what we were focusing on in this game, I felt like we did that well at times, but it’s something we still need to work on I think. It was a very good defensive performance, Emily keeping another clean sheet, I love playing with these girls, today was really fun.”
Yeovil Town Women return to action on Sunday 17th December as they travel to Ilminster Town Reserves in the Somerset County Division 1 14:00 KO.
Image courtesy of Philip Shields