Southampton off to ten-goal win flier

Edged out in last season’s promotion play-offs, Southampton ladies are off to a flier in South Women’s League Division 3B with a 6-2 crushing of Haslemere following a curtain raiser 4-1 victory over Aldershot.
Respected Winchester goalkeeper Ali Birch has taken over as coach at Southampton, who found themselves trailing to a breakaway Aldershot goal at the half-time break.
Southampton had looked rather disjointed in the first period, struggling to find any rhythm – but after a tactic talk from Josh White things changed round after the break.
Once Zoe Stride equalised after a quick break from Liu Hopkins Southampton were on their way.
A short corner routine with Sue Merry enabled Lauren Gunner to make it 2-1 and then Stride got a second.
Southampton added a fourth through Bernie Jones in the last minute.
Southampton carried their new found confidence to Woolmer Hill, where they blasted Haslemere 6-2 – four goals coming in the first half !
Hopkins opened the scoring before Nat Romain and Merry converted short corners and Stride got a fourth.
Indiscipline crept into the game with a spate of yellow and green cards, primarily for stick tackles, but it didn’t deter Southampton, who scored a scorching fifth goal through Zoe Stride and Hopkins a sixth, either side of two consolation goals for Haslemere.