Torquay United made light work of their opening home encounter in the South West Regional Women’s Premier League, with a comprehensive victory over a Frampton side, who never stopped battling.
United had a game plan to start quickly, after dropping points in their season opener at Boco a week ago and had effectively done the job with little more than a quarter of an hour on the watch.
Frampton Rangers Ladies did start brightly and signalled their intentions to use the flanks to get behind Torquay’s defence with Ronnie Jozefowska and Abigail Hughes on either wing. But United quickly settled and forged ahead and though the visitors created chances, Emma Ayres was rarely tested.
United’s opener came on six minutes, Tee Kaptein swiveling neatly in the area to fire across Emma Roddan, and three minutes later she doubled the lead drilling home from a tight angle on the right.
Lucy Solloway’s third of the season made it 3-0 United on 16 minutes, a beautiful curling effort into the roof of the net from 15 yards out.
Solloway added another seven minutes after the break. On the hour mark it was 5-0, skipper. Tracey Cross, with a wicked curling corner that was directly goal-bound before flicking off the head of a Frampton defender. But the goal of the game came with twenty minutes left.
It originated from an Ayres clearance and was brilliantly controlled and distributed out to the right by Lexie Watts, who continued her run into the Frampton area, to finish the move from Emily Elliot’s cross.
Solloway completed her hat-trick two minutes from time, Watts unselfishly teeing up United’s number nine for an easy tap-in.
Next week United will take their first break from league action, though hopefully not their last! It’s the FA Cup second qualifying round, with Coach Road, Newton Abbot the venue for the visit of Plympton Ladies, next Sunday 22nd September. Kick-off is 2 pm.
Torquay United: 1. Emma Ayres, 11. Natascha Bevan, 14. Kaitlyn Harris, 4. Alex Sheppard, 13 Rachel Heron, 6. Adele Brown, 7. Tracey Cross ©, 10. Tee Kaptein, 3 Emily Elliot, 9 Lucy Solloway, 15. Kate McKane Subs: 2. Lucy Palmer, 5. Sam Burnham, 8. Kayleigh Brown, 16. Lexie Watts, 19. Lily Hilton
Player Of The Match: Kaitlyn Harris
Catch up with post-match reaction from Alex Sheppard and Lucy Solloway HERE