Seven days after moving back to the top of the table, Fareham doubled their points advantage on Saturday with a comfortable victory at Oxford Hawks as the three clubs immediately below them all had to settle for draws.

With Lois Haigh and Jenny Sinclair available again a squad of fourteen players travelled to Oxford for the second time in three weeks and made a quick start, winning a penalty corner inside the first two minutes. Amy Hill created an opportunity in front of goal for Sarah Atkinson in the 6th minute but the subsequent shot deflected behind off a defender for a long corner.

The visitors dominated the early possession without initially managing to find a breakthrough goal. This changed in the 15th minute when the ball was played into the ‘D’ for JENNY SINCLAIR who turned onto her strong side and drilled a low shot past the keeper to open the scoring with her first league goal for Fareham.

Six minutes later the visitors doubled their advantage from a penalty corner. Gracie Coleman set up a shot for Alicia Salter which was turned in near the post by SAM POWELL who also scored her first league goal for the team.

Before Hawks had a chance to recover they found themselves 3-0 down in the 23rd minute. Tara Lemon played a long pass down the right side to Lois Haigh whose cross into the ‘D’ caused confusion in the home defence. The ball broke to SARAH ATKINSON who made room for the shot before firing past the keeper for the third goal.

Immediately from the restart the home team had an opportunity to reduce the advantage. Sophia Barclay was forced to dive amongst a sea of players to hook the ball away from the goalmouth before a shot from the edge of the ‘D’ passed wide of the post.

Three minutes later there was more goalmouth action. This time there was no shot on goal but there were three green cards dished out, including one for Sophia in the visitors’ goal, as Fareham found themselves down to nine players for two minutes with the home side also minus a player.

After this flurry of activity around the visitors’ goal things calmed down and both sides were back to full strength as Fareham picked up the pace and scored again in the 32nd minute from another penalty corner. ALICIA SALTER’s first effort was blocked but her second shot found the target to make the score 4-0.

The final action of the half came from an Oxford Hawks PC as Sophia saved a shot from the captain, Chloe Kirby.

At the break Fareham were almost out of sight with a comfortable advantage and yet it felt like we had never really quite found our rhythm and could have played better.

Play resumed with the away team once again making the early running. Jenny Sinclair came close to her second goal when a shot was saved after the ball was pulled back to her by Aimee Timms following a strong run to the goal line.

The game coasted along for a while after this with little in the way of scoring opportunities. With fifteen minutes remaining the home side raised their game in an attempt to salvage something from the match. They forced three penalty corners in a short space of time and put the visitors’ goal under pressure. From the first of these corners a shot was deflected up off Tara Lemon’s stick towards the top corner of the goal but Aimee Timms reached up to deflect the ball over the bar.

Two minutes later another Chloe Kirby shot from a PC came close but the outstretched leg of Sophia diverted the ball wide. Finally, from the third of the penalty corners in the 59th minute, the hosts got their consolation goal with CATHERINE REANEY converting a cross from close range.

The goal stung Fareham into action and they finished the game on top once again. A pass into the ‘D’ from Lauren Beagrie created a chance for Zoe Stride but her shot was just kept out by Ruby Jamieson who had a busy day in the home goal.

The visitors kept looking for another goal and Gracie Coleman almost found it in the 67th minute. Her run from right to left across the top of the ‘D’ ended with a reverse shot which beat the keeper but was inches beyond the far post.

Fareham duly secured their fifth goal in the 69th minute when ALICIA SALTER bagged her second goal of the day, deflecting a shot high past the keeper from a well-worked penalty corner.

The final score of 5-1 summed up a convincing win but it was a strange match where we were able to achieve what was needed without really moving up into a higher gear. For the second match in a row we also collected four green cards which didn’t really reflect the way the game was played. Things were not helped by the umpires trialling new positions on the field with the result that often they were making calls from a long distance away. It was also odd to see a team attacking the opponents goal with the umpire stood behind the keeper on the goal line, between the posts.

We are close to the half-way point of the league season but first of all we have another big match to play at home to Oxford next Saturday (13.30 at Henry Cort). We have had some very close games against them and they are the most recent team to beat us at Premier 1 level two seasons ago.