Workington Town Women produced their most polished performance of the season so far in a 7-0 win at Blackpool Ladies.
There were hat tricks for Bea Barber and Cassie Donald which crowned their dominant display.
Barber opened the scoring in the 4th minute after centre back Keeley Chatters, played a direct ball to find Nat Broad in space offering on the left.
Broad settled before lifting a ball over the home back line to find Barber’s attacking run. Her clean first-time control allowed her to steady and slot the ball home with real authority.
Their lead was doubled a little over five minutes later after a drive from Chloe Henderson on the right, ricocheted to find Cassie Donald on the edge of the area. Donald’s crisp strike produced a fine save from the Blackpool shot stopper, Rhianna Moore, with the resulting loose ball finding Broad in support to coolly slot home from close in.
With just over the half hour played, Barber’s pace and control punished a misplaced pass from the home defence as she broke free from 40 yards out.
Good pressing from full back Tiegan Hargrave, stacked pressure on her opposing left back high up the field. Barber sensed the chance as she pressed the attempted connection, before running clear and rounding Moore to slot home into an empty goal.
As the sides went into the dressing rooms at half-time, and with Town with a three goal cushion, it would seem just to place all plaudits in the direction of the attacking players.
However, the platform had been set by the whole team and from the control and dominance that they had fought to establish over the first 45 minutes.
The back line of Hargrave, Helen Wagstaff, Chatters and Hooper, had quickly found their rhythm and displayed a controlled cohesion between them which was complimented by Laura Miller’s calmness in the visitors’ nets.
Industry in the middle of the park from Kirsten Donald, Henderson, Cassie Donald and Hayley Bracken had quickly closed the doors on home desires to attack as well as connecting well to pose a series of attacking questions from themselves.
To put it simply, Town Women had established total control in the game.
The only sour note in the first half from the visitors’ perspective, was when Kirsten Donald had to leave the field having rolled her ankle with only minutes of the half remaining.
Keeley Holliday replaced Donald and was soon hitting the quality and control that her predecessor had set earlier.
The quality of strikes on goal in the first half was impressive, but the four second half strikes were phenomenal.
With less than five minutes of the second half gone, midfielder Cassie Donald notched up the first of her hat trick of goals.
Broad had delivered a corner from the right which was half cleared twice by the Seasiders’ defence before Barber collected on the right edge of the area.
Despite being on a hat-trick herself, the striker selflessly squared to find Donald who reacted instinctively as she met the ball with a first time strike to find the top right corner with a flashing finish to beat Moore.
Barber was rewarded two minutes after pressure from Holliday in the middle of the park had forced a mistake which was cleaned up by Chatters.
The centre back was eager to take the advantage as she linked with Holliday, who in turn released Barber. Noting that Moore was off her line, the in-form striker delivered a lofted strike from 25 yards which left the keeper no chance of saving.
Barber’s keenness to press was a fundamental factor in Donald’s second goal, as the attacker chased down the home re-start from a goal kick,
As the ball was played forward, Broad added a second phase of pressure and her presence was enough to cause the ball to come loose.
Donald needed no second invitation as she attacked the loose ball from the left and drilled home the ball with power from 25 yards out to find the bottom left corner.
Donald’s third came as the game was drawing to a close and after persistent physical attention aimed at Bracken throughout had resulted in the attacking midfielder being felled 20 yards out on the right-hand side.
Donald was keen to take the opportunity to complete her hat trick and with her resulting driven strike passing Moore at pace, her mission was completed.
Nat Broad was awarded the Player of the Game recognition for Town Women after a controlled and composed performance in the attacking area of the field for the visitors.
After the game, manager Paul Mackenzie was keen to credit the victory to the squad performance saying: “We were in scintillating form and that was quite possibly the most complete team performance that I have seen the squad deliver.
“There has without doubt, been really good performances in the past, but this was next level stuff. The dominance and control was complemented by keen pressing as a team and the quality of goals just got better and better as the game unfolded.
“We were concerned to lose Kirsten just before half time as she has been in cracking form this season, but hopefully responding quickly and removing her from the game will result in the damage being minimal and she will be back quickly.
“Keeley came on and ensured that the dominance that Kirsten had set was continued with, as too did fellow substitutes Ella O’Nions and Olivia Paice.”
Town Women will see out their footballing activities for 2024 when they entertain Preston North End at the Fibrus Community Stadium this Sunday at 2pm.
