Penrith earned their second win over Workington Reds Ladies over the last eight days, scoring five goals for the second week running.
The early exchanges were shared between both sides and it was arguably the Reds that should have gone ahead early on when a chance fell to Chloe Henderson which produced a close range save from Penrith keeper Hope Lawson.
A further chance for Hayley Bracken followed soon after with the resulting header unfortunately going the wrong side of the post for the Reds.
Penrith hit back with good chances of their own and might have gone ahead sooner if it wasn’t for some good saves from the Reds keeper, Laura Miller.
However, Penrith found the back of the net soon after, when the in-form Sharina Robinson, fired an excellently taken strike from outside the left edge of the area to find the far top corner to leave Miller helpless.
She soon doubled her tally and with that the teams advantage, when she hit a second clinical finish centrally on the edge of the area.
The home side’s third goal came around the half hour mark when a free kick was dangerously delivered from 15 yards into the visitors half by Kim McCormick. Abbie Forster rose well in the area to meet the cross and head home from close range.
Bracken responded for the visitors with less than ten minutes of the half remaining. A ball fed forward from Eleanor McDonald found Morgan McGrady who quickly fed Bracken. She still had plenty to do in order to make the opportunity a chance, which she did with good physical presence before finishing left footed passed Hope.
Penrith’s forth goal came early in the second half after good work from Forster down the left resulted in a dangerous cross being released into the box. Sarah Smith reacted well and met the ball with a first time strike which crashed down off the crossbar before being deemed to have crossed the line.
The final Penrith goal could be better described in cricket terms rather than football terms. A deflected strike from the edge of the area from Jodie English looked to be a standard collection for Miller.
However, what followed was akin to a leg break delivery in cricket, with the ball viciously spinning before changing direction to Millers right whilst darting forward at the same time.
This unexpected movement wrong footed Miller and the ball passed agonisingly in to the empty net.
This was the final notable act of the game.
Helen Wagstaff was awarded Player of the Game for the Reds with Sharina Robinson being the recipient of the visitors vote.
After the game, manager Paul Mackenzie said, “Credit obviously has to go to Penrith for a really solid performance. There were some positives for us as well as areas we need to work on and these will be our focus over the coming weeks.
“It’s a tough one for us all to take today, but the Ladies fought right to the end and credit has to go to them for that. We face another tough test this weekend against an in-form Preston North End and we will be doing all we can to prepare ourselves for that challenge.”
