West Ham United Ladies suffered another heavy defeat as a rampant Charlton Athletic secured an 8-0 victory on Sunday 14 February.
After being knocked out of the FA Women’s Cup in the third round by Blackburn Rovers, the Ladies returned to league action and found themselves 4-0 down at half time through goals from Kit Graham, former Hammer Gemma Shepherd, captain Kim Dixson and Stefanie Simmons.
The scoreline went from bad to worse in the second half, when Shepherd fired home twice more, before skipper Dixson did the same to extend the Addicks’ lead to eight.
Manager Marc Nurse made a number of changes to his starting eleven in an attempt to end the poor run of results. Development Squad goalkeeper Jodie Sanderson was called on to replace Lauren Picton in goal, whilst Natalie Strange stepped in for Erika Campesi and birthday girl Cindy Ferreira was dropped to the bench to allow new signing Elizabeth Berkeley to start.
Before kick-off at Bridge Avenue, there was a minute of silence to remember former West Ham and Charlton midfielder Katie Sheppard, who died at the age of 22 in July 2014 and is forever loved and missed by all that knew her.
The Hammers started well and were getting plenty of time on the ball where midfielders Gemma Abela and Danni Ritson were able to get the ball moving and getting the speedy Whitney Locke and Romina Pinna away down the wings.
However, a defensive mistake from the Hammers allowed the Addicks to take the lead as defender Strange was dispossessed by Shepherd, before giving the ball to Graham to fire home from 18 yards.
Just a matter of minutes later, Graham turned from scorer to provider as she laid the ball on a plate for Shepherd who confidently buried into the far corner.
Hammers heads started to drop and around six minutes later, another defensive lapse gave the ball away to Dixson, who fired an unstoppable volley into the top corner to extend the visitors lead to 3-0.
There was little that Sanderson could do to stop the scoreline getting even worse before the break, when a fantastic deep cross by Jenny Newman found Simmons at the back post, where she fired in the top corner with power.
Nurse needed to spark some energy and inspiration into his team at the break if they were to have any chance of grabbing a consolation goal.
The scoreline continued to get worse for the hosts though as a fifth goal was scored after good work from Katie Flack, Simmons and Graham worked the ball to Shepherd, who fired low into the corner.
Shepherd added her hat-trick goal just nine minutes after the break when Simmons’ whipped cross was slid home.
With around quarter of an hour left, Dixson took the captain’s duty to sealing the victory with two further goals of her own. First, she buried home from close range after Shepherd blocked a West Ham clearance in the penalty area, before she was well placed in the box to finish from substitute Amy Howlett’s cross.
That result leaves the Hammers in eighth place in the FA Women’s Premier League South, with just 14 points from their 16 league fixtures this season.
LADIES: Sanderson, Strange (Smith), Wheeler, Bottom (c), Sammons, Abela, Missen, Ritson, Pinna (Ferreira), Locke, Berkley (Hinz)
After being knocked out of the FA Women’s Cup in the third round by Blackburn Rovers, the Ladies returned to league action and found themselves 4-0 down at half time through goals from Kit Graham, former Hammer Gemma Shepherd, captain Kim Dixson and Stefanie Simmons.
The scoreline went from bad to worse in the second half, when Shepherd fired home twice more, before skipper Dixson did the same to extend the Addicks’ lead to eight.
Manager Marc Nurse made a number of changes to his starting eleven in an attempt to end the poor run of results. Development Squad goalkeeper Jodie Sanderson was called on to replace Lauren Picton in goal, whilst Natalie Strange stepped in for Erika Campesi and birthday girl Cindy Ferreira was dropped to the bench to allow new signing Elizabeth Berkeley to start.
Before kick-off at Bridge Avenue, there was a minute of silence to remember former West Ham and Charlton midfielder Katie Sheppard, who died at the age of 22 in July 2014 and is forever loved and missed by all that knew her.
The Hammers started well and were getting plenty of time on the ball where midfielders Gemma Abela and Danni Ritson were able to get the ball moving and getting the speedy Whitney Locke and Romina Pinna away down the wings.
However, a defensive mistake from the Hammers allowed the Addicks to take the lead as defender Strange was dispossessed by Shepherd, before giving the ball to Graham to fire home from 18 yards.
Just a matter of minutes later, Graham turned from scorer to provider as she laid the ball on a plate for Shepherd who confidently buried into the far corner.
Hammers heads started to drop and around six minutes later, another defensive lapse gave the ball away to Dixson, who fired an unstoppable volley into the top corner to extend the visitors lead to 3-0.
There was little that Sanderson could do to stop the scoreline getting even worse before the break, when a fantastic deep cross by Jenny Newman found Simmons at the back post, where she fired in the top corner with power.
Nurse needed to spark some energy and inspiration into his team at the break if they were to have any chance of grabbing a consolation goal.
The scoreline continued to get worse for the hosts though as a fifth goal was scored after good work from Katie Flack, Simmons and Graham worked the ball to Shepherd, who fired low into the corner.
Shepherd added her hat-trick goal just nine minutes after the break when Simmons’ whipped cross was slid home.
With around quarter of an hour left, Dixson took the captain’s duty to sealing the victory with two further goals of her own. First, she buried home from close range after Shepherd blocked a West Ham clearance in the penalty area, before she was well placed in the box to finish from substitute Amy Howlett’s cross.
That result leaves the Hammers in eighth place in the FA Women’s Premier League South, with just 14 points from their 16 league fixtures this season.
LADIES: Sanderson, Strange (Smith), Wheeler, Bottom (c), Sammons, Abela, Missen, Ritson, Pinna (Ferreira), Locke, Berkley (Hinz)