It was a historic weekend for Torquay United’s women, who secured their first-ever FA Women’s National League victory in style on Sunday, as they thrashed Selsey 6-0 at Brixham’s Wall Park.
In a match full of chances the ladies began in a controlled manner and on the front foot, with United having plenty of ball and territory in their opponent’s half, forcing pressure with a string of early corners.
The game then burst into life of a quarter of an hour mark, when a perfectly timed through-ball sent Danni Wyatt clean through, and with the Selsey centre-back ending Wyatt’s run illegally just outside the box, the visiting defender was shown a straight red card from the referee.
With the numerical advantage assisting them, Torquay were controlling the game and pinpointing several well-executed diagonal balls, sending Ella Stephens and Emily Eaton down the wings to trouble their opponents.
At times, United were slightly guilty of overplaying, and they were forced to be patient until their opener finally came down the right.
Ella Stephens’ corner was whipped across the box, and with Tracey Cross ghosting in behind the Selsey defence, a simple back-post finish gave United the lead.
A one-goal lead was quickly doubled, as Cross scored again shortly afterwards, striking the ball low into the corner.
Danni Wyatt was the next player to get on the scoresheet, and it came from another positive attacking move, as a ball laid across the box saw Wyatt control well, before a volleyed finish made it 3-0.
Selsey, to their credit, kept plugging away, with a couple of counter-attacks keeping United’s backline on their toes.
United got their fourth just before half-time from Chloe Kind.
Kind, who was unlucky not to have had more goals to her name on the day, finished off a move after fed in to the box, calmly tucking the ball past the advancing Selsey keeper to give her side a four-goal half-time lead.
The second half got underway with three early substitutions by boss Steve Elswood, who was keen to rest key players for the midweek fixture against Bridgwater United away on Wednesday evening on his mind.
Kind created a couple more chances at the beginning of the second half, and it was her strong cross-shot hitting the bar that sparked more celebrations, with the ball dropping down for Danni Wyatt to tap in her second of the game.
Wyatt and Kind were influential all afternoon leading the United line, with the former also chalking up two assists to go with her brace of goals.
There was still time for one more goal, and with the clock ticking down, Lilly Burton burst through onto the end of a defence-splitting through-ball, before sliding the ball under the advancing goalkeeper to round things off at 6-0.
Elswood pleased with first win
“I was delighted with the ladies’ application today, we put in that big performance that we all knew we had in this division,” said Steve after the final whistle.
“We controlled the game from the off, with a real attack-minded mentality and shape that resulted in us scoring some well-worked goals in the process. Credit has to go to Selsey, who kept going throughout the 90 minutes and trying to play, but I was really pleased today with our link-up play and some new ideas that we were executing. It was great to get a clean sheet as well out there, which was such an important factor in the backbone of our success in winning the league last season.
“We were able to make some change,s and get some fresh legs on in the second half and also rest players ahead of a massive game on Wednesday night at Bridgwater United. We will be looking to take this momentum along with positives from the games so far, and focus on a second win in a week against Bridgwater.
“They’ll be very tough and attack-minded for sure, with players we know well having played for us. However, we are really looking forward to the challenge, and it should be a really entertaining game of football up in Somerset.”