Whitehaven AFC Ladies continued their brilliant start in the Lancashire League Championship Division with their second consecutive victory, away against Haslingden Reserves.
The game wasn’t as comfortable as the 7-0 scoreline suggested with Whitehaven slow to get started at the beginning of each half.
In fact, Haslingden had a few early opportunities which were thwarted by Whitehaven’s captain, Niamh Morgan who fashioned some brilliant recovery tackles early on.
Soon Whitehaven got a foothold in the game when they took the lead 12 minutes in as goalkeeper Kaela Reay bowled a quick ball to Emmi Davidson who drove forward.
She then played a square ball to full back Erin Marley, who then exchanged passes with Leila Branthwaite, before finding the advancing Sophie May.
Clipping an inch perfect ball forward May found the lively Ashleigh McAllister who finished into the far corner from 12 yards.
Whitehaven continued to press and were 2-0 up in the 15th minute when they won a corner which Branthwaite delivered perfectly for May to smash home from three yards.
The referee awarded the goal despite strong appeals from the Haslingden players for a hand ball.
The third goal came after 19 minutes when Haslingden were applying some pressure on the Whitehaven backline. Ellie-May Callander won the ball on the edge of the Whitehaven area and played a long ball to McAllister who positioned herself perfectly in between the two covering Haslingden defenders and finished confidently past the goalkeeper from 16 yards.
Haslingden went close to pulling one back on the 22nd minute when a corner was met powerfully by one of the home forwards, but Reay went full stretch to keep the ball out.
Whitehaven’s fourth goal came from a Callander throw 30 yards from the Haslingden goal on the 27th minute. Branthwaite played a great ball round the corner into Grace Houghton who held off her marker and squared the ball to McAllister on the edge of the area. She turned the last defender before finishing clinically for her hat-trick.
Haslingden had an opportunity to score on the 32nd minute when a short back pass was picked up by the Haslingden attacker who was just about to pull the trigger when Morgan made an outstanding recovery tackle to keep Whitehaven’s clean sheet intact.
Whitehaven kept possession of the ball well to see-out the remainder of the first half.
A sloppy start for Whitehaven in the second half gave Haslingden an opportunity to score in the 48th minute. The Whitehaven defence was caught out on the left hand side from where the home winger put the ball into the box.
An attacker got the touch, which looked to be going into the net. until Morgan came to the rescue again and cleared the ball off the line.
Whitehaven eventually got to grips with the second half when they scored their fifth in the 74th minute.
The ball was won in midfield by Lissy Close playing a diagonal ball to Marley wide right who then found Eden Hetherington for a quick one-two.
Hetherington then played a great ball into the box to Houghton who used her strength to hold off the defender before turning and finishing into the bottom left corner.
It was 6-0 after 84 minutes when Whitehaven won the ball back from a Haslingden throw.
A good interchange between Scarlett McAvoy and May moved the ball from the right to left into Marley, She let fly from 25 yards out and the ball flew over the keeper into the net.
Whitehaven completed the scoring in the 87th minute with Hetherington battling for the ball which fell to McAvoy who then drove towards the Haslingden area.
She then unleashed a superb shot for the keeper to produce an outstanding save, but the rebound was tucked home by McAllister to score her fourth of the day.
