West Allotment Celtic Ladies swept aside Carlisle United Ladies in a dominant manner with an astounding 9-0 victory to see us into the Second Round Qualifying.
The Allotment Ladies were on a high after being victorious in their first league game of the season last week and they were looking to carry that momentum into the Vitality Women's FA Cup. Our Cumbrian visitors were certainly going to be in for a tough test.
After just 5 minutes, Laura Wright opened up the scoring at Palmersville. Gabby McConnell played a perfect through-ball to carve open the Carlisle defence and Wright finished off the move to put Allotment 1-0 ahead.
The lead was then doubled after 13 minutes. A cross was whipped in from the right-hand side and Victoria Curtis was left completely unmarked and had the simple task of prodding the ball home under no pressure.
On 27 minutes, West Allotment Ladies added a third and were proving to be too dominant for the visitors. Megan Hindmarsh received the ball and let a shot go from about 25 yards which left the Carlisle goalkeeper rooted to her spot.
Just before half time, Allotment stepped it up once again with two quickfire goals to really kill off the game. Gabby McConnell, who had been causing problems for the Carlisle defence all game, scored both the fourth and fifth goals.
For the fourth goal, she neatly controlled a long ball just outside the box and then drove into the box and finished well in the bottom corner. A minute later, Wright forced a good save from the goalkeeper but McConnell was there to tap home the rebound. Allotment leading 5-0 at the break.
The second half kicked off and normal service was resumed almost instantly. On 47 minutes, central defender Kate Brooks played a simply fantastic ball over the top of the defence to McConnell who brought the ball down and finished neatly for her hat-trick.
With the score at 6-0, Allotment showed no signs of taking their foot off the pedal. On the hour-mark, Laura Wright was played in again and slotted the ball past the keeper with a tidy finish to add her second of the game and Allotment's seventh.
Five minutes later, Faye Jardine made it 8-0. A fantastic team move saw Brooks launch yet another perfect ball over the top of the defence for Caitlyn Hutchinson. The latter then pulled the ball back for Jardine who finished off the move in a clinical manner.
The scoring was complete just a couple of minutes before full time. Paul played the ball through to Hannah Dodds who kept her composure as she cut in on her right foot and bent the ball past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net off the post.
After a dominant and deserving 9-0 win, West Allotment Ladies head coach David Dodds was very happy...
"I'm very pleased with the performance and the fact that we controlled the game from start to finish. They [Carlisle] just couldn't cope with our movement." - David Dodds
We will now travel to Washington Ladies on Sunday October 3rd for the Second Round Qualifying tie.
By Callum Pattison
Photos by Graeme Jackson