How Ashton United Women made history

Ashton United's newly-formed women's team marked their first competitive home game in style with a historic 5-0 victory over Baguley on Sunday afternoon.

With admission free, there was a healthy crowd at Hurst Cross and the spectators were rewarded with a five-star performance from the dominant Robins, who bounced back from their 4-2 season-opening defeat at Bolton Wanderers Ladies the previous weekend. 

Kay Higgins (pictured) stole the show with a hat-trick before setting up the other two goals for Kendall Charlton against a Baguley side who had a player sent off late on. 

The team, which was established during the summer, made a strong start to the game and forced some smart saves from the Baguley goalkeeper early on. 

It took Bex Garlick's team 36 minutes to get their rewards as Higgins calmly slotted home after breaking through the visitors' defence. She came close to making it 2-0 just three minutes later but her shot rebounded off the crossbar.

Baguley came close to an equaliser in the early stages of the second half before Ashton doubled their lead just after the hour-mark through Charlton after a brilliant counter attack. 

Just three minutes later, it was 4-0 as Higgins and Charlton added to their tallies, with Baguley having no answer to the Robins' attacking prowess. 

There were further chances for Ashton and, after Baguley's Payne was shown a second yellow card, Higgins completed the scoring in the 83rd minute to seal her hat-trick. 

And Robins assistant manager Alex West hailed the 23-year-old's display, as well as the all-round performance of the team. 

"In training, she's usually the one saying 'I need to get forward and I need to score more goals'," he told Ashton United's media team. "I think we've given her that chance and she has proved us right. I'm sure in the future she will be up top a bit more often! But she was absolutely brilliant.

"All of the players knew their jobs, individually and as a unit. Individuals delivered above expectations - we even had a hat-trick from our left-winger Kay. The back four stayed compact, the middle three were really compact - nothing went through them, which was great. Our front three did exactly what we wanted them to, holding the ball up and working back their two wingers. We were absolutely fantastic across the park. 

"After having a few shaky starts in pre-season, to keep a clean sheet in just the second game of the season is massive. I think that will give everyone a bit of a confidence boost, especially myself and the manager. It will help us out and it will help them [the players] to build confidence going forward, having some composure and playing out from the back. We can now build on that." 

West also felt the players were helped by a decent crowd which turned out to support the team. 

"It really helps you coach and it really helps you play," he added. "Some of the players when they came off the pitch showed their appreciation with a big round of applause. It just gives you that boost that actually you have some support.

"It's not just the other 10 players, it's not just the coaches and managers, it's the however many people in the crowd who have your back as well. It really does help."