Oxford United Women beat Abingdon United Women 5-0 to progress to the next round of the FAWNL Cup this afternoon at Court Place Farm
Zoe Barratt scored a hat-trick within 15 minutes, before Katie Sherwood and Iesha Swaby got on the scoresheet in a five star performance.
Kate Wiseman, who missed last weekend due to international clearance, almost had the dream start to her debut, charging into the box and heading an effort just wide of the post in the second minute.
Five minutes later and the U’s had the lead. Jaime Gotch did really well to bring the ball down in the box and lay off Barratt, who rifled her effort into the net for her second goal in as many games.
She then doubled her tally for the day and United’s lead in the 14th minute, rolling home the penalty she won into the bottom left corner.
Home debuts don’t come much better than Barratt’s; a minute later she had a hat-trick inside the first quarter of an hour, cutting inside superbly in the box and bending a left footed effort beautifully into the net.
The U’s were caused plenty of issues by Abingdon in pre-season last month, but a lot has changed at Oxford United Women since then, and this side is building week on week; Sherwood popped up from a corner in the 23rd minute to add United’s fourth.
Captain Leah Burridge was forced off in the 32nd minute after a knock to the head, with the armband passed to Gotch as Cecily Wellesley-Smith replaced her in midfield.
A strong first half performance from the U’s, who needed a confidence boost after a deflating last minute draw last weekend.
Izzy Cook, who also had a lively full debut on the right wing, and Barratt were replaced by Sarah King and Iesha Swaby around the hour mark as the U’s looked to add more before the full-time whistle.
Hannah Cox, who used to play for the U’s, made some excellent second half saves to stop it being a rout.
Swaby almost scored a superb goal, bringing the ball down on her chest, swivelling, but striking her half volley inches over the crossbar.
Poppy Dearlove came on with ten minutes to go, and almost scored with her first touch as King whipped a cross in to the back post, but she couldn’t guide it home and it looked like there were to be no more goals in a game that was won inside 20 minutes.
Then, in the 90th minute, Swaby scored the pick of the bunch, curling a left footed effort into the top corner from the edge of the box to make it 5-0.
A comfortable victory and a clean sheet to send the U’s into the next round of the FAWNL Cup. They now look ahead to their first home game in the League next weekend against Hashtag United.
LINEUP: Sercombe, Provan, Gotch, Sherwood, Hoare, Burridge (Wellesley-Smith 32’), Stevens, Wiseman, Liggett (Dearlove 81’), Barratt (Swaby 61’), Cook (King 57’)