Ladies see off Bees

Spurs Ladies cruised to a 3-0 win at London Bees on Sunday to keep pace at the top of the FA Women’s Championship, writes Rosie Bonass.

Rianna Dean’s 15th goal of the season gave the Lilywhites the lead, before an own goal from Annabel Johnson and another delightful strike from Sarah Wiltshire wrapped up three points for Spurs.

A fourth consecutive league victory means that Spurs increase the gap at the top of the table to seven points, and they are yet to lose a game in all competitions so far this year.

Manager Karen Hills made five changes to the side who overcame Crystal Palace in the FA Cup as Megan Wynne, Renée Hector, Wiltshire, Coral-Jade Haines and Sophie Mclean all regained their places in the starting line-up.

Dean broke the deadlock after 14 minutes – her fourth goal in five games came from the penalty spot. Destiny Toussaint was adjudged to have handled the ball in the 18-yard box from Wynne’s cross and Dean stepped up to convert the spot-kick calmly into the bottom left corner.

Nine minutes later, Spurs doubled their advantage when Dean’s header from Wiltshire’s ball in was turned into the back of the net by Bees’ defender Johnson.

The Lilywhites made a perfect start to the second half as a third goal arrived within two minutes of the resumption. After being named Player of the Month for January on Wednesday, Wiltshire continued the celebrations by finishing off an excellent move involving Haines and Jessica Naz to secure a comfortable win at The Hive Stadium.

Match reaction

“For us it was a massive three points against a team who have been doing really well,” Head Coach Juan Amoros said after defeating Bees, who came into the game following three consecutive wins. “It’s fantastic to see how this group of players work and what we did during the week in training, they delivered and it was different class today. Everyone in the team is working so hard so I was very pleased to see us score another three goals today and get another clean sheet.”

Top goalscorer Dean added: “I’m really pleased and I can’t fault the performance. I thought the girls were brilliant and I think you could always tell a performance like the one today was coming from the week we had in training – it was a different level and that showed on the pitch today. Every goal that I do score is not just because I’m putting it in the back of the net, but because the whole team have battled well for me to just finish the product off, and those goals aren’t just credit to myself, but a massive credit to the team.”

Match data

Goals: Spurs Ladies – Dean 14, Johnson (OG) 23, Wiltshire 47.

Referee: Lauren Holt.

Venue: The Hive Stadium.