Newbury fared much better in the second half however, defending deeper and restricting Southampton to playing the ball around in areas where they couldn’t hurt the visitors as much. That said, Newbury’s depleted squad were suffering with injuries and they finished the match with only 9 players on the pitch for the final 15 minutes. Southampton only added 4 goals in the second half, but unsurprisingly ran out convincing 11 nil winners. Despite that score-line, Kat Brown played brilliantly in goal, saving a penalty in the first half, and Player of the Match for Newbury, Lauren Hanson, performed heroics in the back line throughout. Alex Kovacsova was also deserving of a mention too, because she took up the call to be a late replacement in the squad and then came on in difficult circumstances in the game, but acquitted herself extremely well against a formidable Southampton FC team, who will surely now take on the tag of being ‘champions elect’.

Match report by Sue Hewett