Moors Ladies extended their astonishing unbeaten league run to 14 games with a 6-0 thrashing of Thornaby at Teesdale Park on Sunday afternoon.
Incredibly, Billy Shackleton’s side were struck by injuries and rarely reached their best in the weekend encounter, but still proved too much for their hosts and the emphatic victory sent Moors top of the table.
On a tricky pitch, Moors struggled to get into their rhythm in the early stages and it was Thornaby who looked the most likely to open the scoring and keeper Alex Saunders had to get down bravely at the opposition striker’s feet.
However, Shackleton’s side grabbed a goal to settle the nerves on 9 minutes when Katy Hemmingway raced away down the right side on to Courtney Mole’s searching pass and drove a fine finish across the keeper for 1-0.
Courtney Mole was the architect behind Moors’ second goal too on 42 minutes. This time it was her free-kick from the left which caused problems for the keeper who parried it only as far as Kira Whittle who nodded home from close range.
Whittle then ensured Moors took a three-goal lead in at half time when she burst into space down the right before delivering a wonderful ball across for Autumn Colledge to fire in to the net.
Thornaby missed a couple of presentable chances at the start of the second half before Moors effectively made sure of victory by grabbing a fourth goal on the hour when Lily Jackson raced down the left before squaring for Meg Foster who couldn’t miss from just a couple of yards out.
Hannah Knox then came off the bench to take centre-stage. Within minutes she escaped through the middle on to Autumn Colledge’s through ball and clipped a wonderful lofted shot over the keeper and into the top corner for 5-0 on 68 minutes.
Knox wasn’t finished there either. This time Foster found her in space around 30 yards from goal and Knox showed brilliant vision to spot the keeper off her line and executed the chipped finish to perfection to make it 6-0.
“I don’t really think we were at our best today, as silly as that sounds – and the girls agreed,” Shackleton told us.
“I spoke to them at half time because although we were 3-0 up, Thornaby had created various chances and it could have been a lot different.
“It might seem like I am being negative, but it’s testament to how well we’ve performed recently that I know there is room for improvement even after a really good result.
“We’ve got a week now at the top of the table and we’ve got to do our best to make sure we stay there.”
Moors’ next fixture is this coming Sunday when Thornaby are the opponents once again with the game taking place at New Ferens Park in Durham (2pm kick-off). Admission is £2.
Full Time: Thornaby 0 Moors 6
Moors: Saunders, Salkeld, Farrugia, Welch-Davison, O Mole, C Mole, Seymour, A Colledge, Hemmingway, Jackson, Whittle.
Subs: Scott, Knox, Middleton, Foster, Hopps.
