Oxford United Women beat bottom-of-the-league MK Dons 3-0 at the MGroup Stadium last night to climb to fourth place in the National League South.
A first-half goal from Zoe Barratt and two second-half strikes from leading scorer Phoebie Poole earned the U's their second successive win to turn around a spell of poor results.
There was a first start for Nicole Barrett and Adele Lindbaek played 90 minutes as she returned from injury.
United dominated the opening minutes of the game, although they had to be patient as they tried to open up the Milton Keynes defence. The first real chance arrived in the 18th minute, as an Adele Lindbaek cross was met with a diving header from Barratt, but she was unable to direct the ball on target.
Barratt didn't have to wait long though, as less than a minute later she pounced on a deflected ball to slot home for the opening goal. Oxford continued to dominate the remainder of the half, without being able to add to the score.
It took United a little while to get going after the break but a triple substitution on the hour provided the spark the Yellows needed as, eight minutes later, Poole scored her first of the evening. Her pace took her beyond the Dons defence and, one on one with goalkeeper Megan Dellar, she made no mistake to double the score.
There was a nice moment for Liv Smith with eight minutes remaining as she replaced Barratt to make her first appearance for the women's side, and she was on the pitch in added time to see Poole head home her second of the night and wrap up the three points.
After the game, manager Sam Rose said: "The first half was a little bit slow, but I felt the second half was much better. We still created plenty of chances in both halves.
"We upped the tempo a little bit in the second half and introduced some fresh legs, and obviously that's going to help. We scored two late on and kept a clean sheet.
"To be able to leave players like Leah and Jenna on the bench and for them to come on and help us over the line just shows that when everybody's here and everybody's fit, we've got some real competition across the team, and that's important."
The women are next in action on Sunday against Plymouth Argyle at the MGroup Stadium, kick-off 2:00pm.
UNITED: Howard, Gibson, Wiseman (Burridge 61), Creaney, Barratt (Smith 83), Poole, Lindbaek, Richardson (Legg 61), Gotch (Jenkins 61), Trinder (Bryant 76), Barrett
Report: Martin Brodetsky; Photography: Chris Foxwell
