West Ham United 12-0 Reading Royals
West Ham United Ladies romped to their record league victory on Sunday against a valiant Reading side at Harlow Town.
The emphatic FA Premier Women's League South victory surpassed the club's previous best scoreline - an 11-0 success against Collier Row back in 1994 in the Greater London Regional Women's League. Katy Ling and Tracy Duxbury both registered their first hat-tricks for the club with Sam Pittuck adding two. The remaining goals came from Natalie Grafton, Clare Rogers and Dani Hoy and - to compound a miserable day for the visitors - an own goal in the final minute.
Manager Tony Marshall said: "Whilst the score speaks for itself, you have to give credit to the visitors, they have obviously had a lot of internal problems and have lost a lot of players. They came here with a very young side that have been thrown in at the deep end. They never gave up, so many times a team on the end of a drubbing get frustrated and the game turns nasty. There were never any signs of this happening and the Reading girls just kept on trying to play their football.
"I think that they may have accepted that it may be a tall order to avoid relegation this season, but I am sure that if this group of girls continue to show the character that they showed today that they would be back within a season or two. They did not win any points today or score any goals but they won a lot of friends and we all wish them well."
Marshall also paid tribute to the professionalism in his side. "The whole team impressed me but Sam Pittuck was superb today," he said. "Katy Ling showed some tremendous quality in front of goal and with her build up play and, at the back, Carly Roache personified composure." The team are next in action on Sunday when they travel to Cornwall to take on Newquay at the home of Truro City FC. "We have come on in leaps and bounds just in the last month and we will be travelling down in the right spirit," Marshall added.
West Ham United: Toni Monro, Carly Roache, Jess Barling (Dani Hoy), Clare Rogers, Grace Coombs, Lauren White, Sam Pittuck (Chelsea Fowler), Katy Ling, Tracy Duxbury, Lindsay Morgan (Natalie Grafton).