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After 13 long months and countless friendly matches Woodlands Ladies were finally able to get on with playing League Football. A visit to Arnold Town and it's fantastic facilities was a fitting way to begin, but Woodlands were to find that points have to be earned when playing at this level. Within 2 minutes of the kick off a smart move down the left by Arnold's Laura Baldwin drew 3 Woodlands defenders across and her neat pull back gave the excellent Danielle Jackson the simple task of fireing in from only 5 yards out.
Woodlands took several minutes to settle but once they had equalised on 18 minutes from a beautiful cross from Hayley Merritt that eluded everybody, we began to see Woodlands take control. Shannon Ryan hit a post and Nicole Dainty's neat run ended with a shot that just went the wrong side of a post before Woodlands finally went in front on 29 minutes. Nicci Stevenson blocked a clearance and the ball ran into the path of Claire Waring whose left foot shot found the corner of the net. Jess Atkinson & Hayley Merritt were excellent in the first half, Atkinson breaking down moves and playing sublime passes through for the forwards and Merritt was magnificent down the right wing. It was from yet another excellent Hayley Merritt cross that Woodlands went 3-1 up, this time Shannon Ryan just beating Claire Waring to the ball to drive in at the near post.
Woodlands played some great football in the second half, Becca Johnston in the Arnold goal produced an excellent save to stop a Betty Hull header from a corner and from the rebound Hollie Peat fired an unstoppable shot against the crossbar before it was cleared. Claire Waring added a fourth goal, her first shot again well saved by the Arnold keeper, Waring stayed composed and rounded the goalie before fireing home her second goal. Sophie Beresford had a long shot well saved before Shannon Ryan scored Woodlands fifth, Claire Waring completed the scoring and earned the first hat trick of the season in the 75th minute. Finally a word for Antonia Lagou, who played the entire second half after only coming out of a plaster cast on Wednesday. Well done girls, it's a great start, keep it up.!
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