Workington Town Women notched up an emphatic 9-0 victory against Chorley Women’s Development team on a windswept Lakes College pitch.
With the Fibrus Community Stadium hosting Workington Town RLFC’s final home fixture of the season, and despite Chorley’s willingness to reverse the fixture, the North West Women’s Regional Football League was unwilling to sanction the switch, leaving the officials from Town having to look for an alternative venue to stage the game.
The fixture marked the end of a demanding spell of five matches in 15 days for the two clubs, and this seemed to have impacted the visitors more so than the hosts.
Hayley Bracken, Keeley Chatters and Leila Branthwaite were added to the squad having missed the midweek victory over Morecambe at the Fibrus, and manager Paul Mackenzie was able to name all three in the starting 11 to freshen things up and take benefit of rotation offered by having a strong depth in the squad’s quality.
Playing with the strong wind at their backs, Town took the game to their counterparts from Chorley with gusto, setting the tone from the off.
Sarah Smith and Bea Barber had worked the visitors keeper Elena Mitchell on several occasions in the first 15 minutes, a theme that would continue throughout for Mitchell.
Town’s creativity paid off in the 16th minute and their lead was doubled a minute later.
Branthwaite showed good tenacity in the middle of the park to press and regain possession high up the field. The ball found its way to Barber who quickly drove at the line before squaring centrally.
Bracken reacted well to the call of Cassie Donald, as the in-form midfielder burst into the area and fired home with a first time strike which notched up the first of her hat-trick on the day, It also and made it five in the last two games.
Bracken’s scoring got underway soon after with the simplicity of route one football.
A Keeley Chatters goal kick was flicked over the visitors back line into space and Bracken’s anticipation had given her a clear advantage.
Showing great situational awareness and composure, Bracken closed in on Mitchell before steering it past and into the back of the net.
Eight minutes later and it was Smith’s turn to offer a telling press when a goal kick was up for fair challenge.
Her presence resulted in a scuffed clearance which Bracken controlled on her chest before another show of composure resulted in the ball being slotted home, beating Mitchell diving to her right and finding the corner.
Play remained camped in the Chorley half up until the break with Town unable to extend their lead. However, the scoring spree resumed as soon as the second half got underway.
Only two minutes in Niamh Morgan drove out of defence in her own half and found Smith centrally.
She linked with Barber who was quick to cross and find Bracken centrally, having showed great strength to get in front of her marker before controlling with her right and finishing with her left.
Bracken’s tally was extended to four 10 minutes later after another show of strength enabled her to latch onto a Branthwaite through ball and beat Mitchell with a strong finish.
Morgan opened her goal scoring account for the club in the 65th minute after reacting well to collect a loose ball 20 yards out.
The full-back collected before turning inside and then out to set up a right foot strike from just inside the penalty area and beat Mitchell to her left.
The next two goals came in as many minutes and this gave Donald her hat trick with 20 minutes remaining.
Her first came when she gathered a loose ball 25 yards out and left of centre. She initially dragged the ball left to beat the oncoming defender before opening her stance and steering the ball into Mitchells top left corner leaving the keeper with no chance.
Donald’s hat trick was sealed soon after and again Mitchell’s top left corner was the target.
The difference this time was a sublime strike from 25 yards out centrally, again leaving Mitchell helpless.
With seven goals between them on the day, it seemed somewhat fitting that Donald and Bracken were both involved in the final telling act of the game.
A ball fed forward from Olivia Beattie was partially defended before Donald took charge and dissected the Chorley back line to feed Bracken’s run.
Bracken controlled first before digging out a powerful strike to find the corner of the net from just inside the area.
This brought the curtain down on a highly successful afternoon’s work for the home side and lifted them up to fifth in the league table with two wins, two defeats and a draw in their opening five games of the season.
Hayley Bracken’s prowess in front of goal had understandably caught the eye of onlookers on the day so it came as no surprise when her efforts were rewarded with the Player of the Game accolade from the Chorley official.
After her five-goal haul, Bracken was quick to share praise and acknowledge the efforts of the rest of the squad.
She said: “I’m obviously delighted to have scored five goals. As a striker it’s always a relief to get going as early in the season as possible and scoring five goals will hopefully give me a big boost in confidence.
“However, I am totally aware that this would not have been possible had it not been for the vision and quality of the rest of the players on the pitch.
“It was a really good team performance and I was pleased that I could convert the chances that the rest of the players had worked so hard to provide me with.”
Club captain Naomi Foster added: “This has been an extremely demanding start of the season for the majority of the teams in our league.
“Most teams have now played five games and we are only starting the third week of the campaign.
“There has been an influx of quality in to the team over the summer and everything is starting to come together and we can see improvement week-on-week.
“We have been able to rotate the starting line-up and this has been a massive advantage for us.”
The team is back in action this weekend as they face the unbeaten Bolton Wanderers Girls FC on Sunday at the Fibrus Community Stadium.
Bolton inflicted an opening day defeat on Town three weeks ago so there’ll be an added incentive to readdress the balance this weekend.
