On a murky afternoon and soft pitch, Woodley United brought to an end Penn & Tylers Green’s unbeaten league record and in doing so leapt over their visitors into second place.
Penn’s sole attacking threat was a long ball towards their fast forwards but once the home defence had neutralised this after the opening 10 minutes this was a comfortable victory that saw the visitors muster only one shot on goal in the second half, that went wide of debutant keeper’s Sophie Cheadle’s right hand post.
Early in the first half a short Woodley corner, Ellen Surtees’ cross to the far post where Gemma Sims headed over the crossbar but a repeat play in the 22nd minute saw Surtees receive the ball from May Hamblin, turn a defender and her subsequent cross was headed into the visitors’ goal by Michelle Quinn.
Hamblin then saw another of her corners hit the apex of the cross bar and upright in a half that Woodley worked hard and closed down space making it difficult for Penn to gain any momentum in the game.
United had a scare in the second minute of the second half when an opponent was allowed to run unchallenged to put the short wide of the post but Woodley quickly regained their composure to score twice in a four minute spell.
Good play by Amie Benton on the right of the penalty area saw her cross low to Hamblin to score in the 52nd minute with Hamblin following this up with a placed low shot inside the far upright following a pass from Quinn.
Hamblin saw another corner cleared off the crossbar and Surtees shaved the upright from a free kick before her own corner was headed into goal by Gemma Sims six minutes from full time to complete the scoring.
Woodley United: Cheadle, Lawrence (Wraight), Evans, Messitt, Simms, Surtees, M Haines, Sayer, Sawyer, Hamblin (Routledge), Benton Sub not used: N Haines
Goals: Hamblin x2, Quinn, Sims
