Southampton 14-1 Billericay Town
Snows Stadium | Goalscorers; Molly Pike, Katie Wilkinson, Lexi Lloyd-Smith, Rosie Parnell, Lucia Kendall,Megan Wynne, Alice Griffiths
Last Sunday, Saints were back at the beloved ground that saw us rise through the leagues to the Championship, Snows Stadium. An attendance of 242, on a wet and rainy day, made their waythrough the turnstile to witness it all unfold. They played against Billericay Town in a preseason friendly that I can quite frankly say, was a goal fest, ending with 14 goals to 1! The
goals consisted of three hattricks, a brace and 3 single goals. Utter madness!
Seeing the girls for the first time in the flesh repping that new home strip was great too, even if the names on the back were incredibly hard to read, it’s a good job we know our players!
This match allowed us to see the new signings in proper action as well, Jemma Purfield what a player, she is very good with the ball and also crossing it, her corners where immaculate and I’m excited to see her step up to take a free kick in the future, I think that’s going to be
something! Molly Pike also, take a bow, you are an amazing player who definitely knows how
to find the net, First half hattrick? Wow! Throughout the match the girls were communicating
wonderfully and getting their passes correct, not only that, but they were also being very fast
paced and linking up well.
First half
The first half started, it was slow to begin with but as soon as we warmed our way into the
match, we were flying to say the least! The possession was dominated by us the majority of the first half with Billericay causing just some slight problems, nothing major at all. It took us just 22 minutes to get our first goal, it came from our new signing Molly Pike, who stole the ball off the defender just outside the area, ran it forward and took a strike which flew gracefully into the goal.
Just 10 minutes after that first goal, she did it again! This time with a shot from outside the area which travelled to the top right corner. Believe it or not, just one
minute after that goal Molly almost got her hattrick but it was stopped by the goalie's knee. The flood gates had well and truly
opened after that second goal, as in the 34th minute, Wilko chipped the goalie, nestling the ball into the net and that’s not the end of it! In the 36th minute, Lexi got on the end a fabulously placed through ball by Wilko and pulled the trigger putting it in the bottom right-hand corner. We headed into injury time of the first half, surely, we couldn’t add anymore... Yes, we can! Alice made it 5, with a little help from the Billericay goalie! Megan W put it on a plate for Alice to slot it in, their goalie tried to stop but it hit her foot and went into the goal. A first goal for Megan Wynne also came in injury time, injury being a key word here as as she scored, she slid and collided into the post and injured herself, thankfully, she was okay!
The last goal of the half was Mollys hattrick, she ran past a defender and latched onto a through ball by Wilko, with the keeper coming towards her, she chipped it slightly and put it into the back of the net. Successful first half if you ask me. Side note; with the new rules, football matches could now potentially take at least 15-30 minutes longer, with refs taking into account all stoppages when the ball is not in play and adding it on at the end.
Second half
The second half started a little bit different, Billericay got one back shortly into the half as Biggs chipped Beth and scored in the 46th minute. We bit back virtually straight away as in the 47th minute, Wilko got on the end of a deflected ball, but the goal was ruled offside. That’s okay though, 1 minute after that disallowed goal, she put another into the back of the net, again with a little help with the defender who deflected it into the goal with her back! We’ll take it!
Onto the 9th goal and Lucia Kendall had just been subbed on, what are the chances of her scoring with her first touch of the game? Well, it happened, the ball was put on a plate by Wilko and she put it in the far right of the goal. 9-1! Moving quickly on to the second hat trick of the match, Wilko flicked the ball into the bottom right corner to make it her third of the afternoon and 10-1.
It wasn’t long before Lucia added to her tally, a Jemma Purfield cross was put into the back but tapped away by the defender, only for Lucia to shoot and score, making it 11-1 to the mighty Saints! Our captain was next to get on the scoresheet, Jemma crossed the ball into the box after taking it round a Billiericay player, it met the head of Rosie, and she smashed it home!
Billericay were giving us a little poke towards the end of the match, but Lexi managed to get her brace and make it 13-1 in the 86th minute, she ran it from the sideline into the box with no bother from the opposition, allowing her space to shoot and of course score! Another hattrick? Oh, go on then, Lucia snatched her hattrick in the 96th minute of the game after Wilko put it into the box for her to run on to, Lucia obligingly saved us from the superstition unlucky 13! The whistle blew, the match ended, 14-1.
What a good run out and warm up match ready for the season to start on the 27th, I think we have a lot to look forward to this season!
————————-
Side note; Billericay town are in the Southern Premier Division (the league below) and unlike the likes of Pompey and Oxford are not a professional team.
————————-
Line up
Beth Howard
Milly Mott
Rosie Parnell ©
Lexi Lloyd-Smith
Chloe Peplow
Katie Wilkinson
Megan Wynne
Molly Pike
Alice Griffiths
Jemma Purfield
Megan Collett
Subs
Paige Peake
Lucia Kendall
Trialist (Izzy Milne)
Laura Rafferty
Kayla Rendell
Kate Jeffery
Comments