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Colchester United Ladies FC bagged their first win of the new campaign with an impressive 4-1 victory at Gillingham Ladies FC on

Sunday 4th September. The U’s got off to a flying start with Helen Bass going close to punishing a goalkeeping error in the 1st minute before Megan Jiggins powerfully headed home Maegen Doyle’s 11th minute free kick to open the scoring

Colchester continued to control much of the early stages with Bass twice testing Chloe Baker in the Gillingham goal although Natalie Crinean went close for the home side at the opposite end.

The lead was doubled on the half hour when Sian Larkin’s in swinging corner was flicked on by Sian Fagg and then sliced into her own net by a Gillingham defender.

Gillingham enjoyed their best spell of the game following the interval and had the ball in the net on the hour only for Crinean’s effort to be ruled out for offside. As they committed players forward however gaps began to appear at the back and Colchester looked dangerous on the counter with Larkin and Hannah Gowland going close before Bass saw her effort strike a post.

It was the combination of Bass and Gowland that sealed the points in the 81st minute, the Colchester skipper’s nicely weighted through ball met with a sweetly struck left footed drive from youngster Gowland that left Baker with no chance.

Gillingham were handed a late glimmer of hope when Jiggins was harshly adjudged to have handled in the box, Danielle Farmer making no mistake with the resulting spot kick but any hopes of a dramatic revival for the Gills were quickly snuffed out when Doyle launched a 35 yard free kick that Baker could only parry into the roof of the net.

Overall a satisfying performance from Colchester which lifts them into third place in the FA Women’s Premier League South and left U’s Boss Kevin Anderson pleased commenting;

“There’s no doubt we have been disappointed with our start to the season but today was much more like what we should be capable of, particularly in the first half. We had done a bit of homework and thought we may be able to cause them some problems from set pieces and two goals via that route enabled us to take control of the game. Other than a 20 minute spell after half time when they went a bit more direct, threw a lot at us and we lost a bit of concentration and composure, I thought we defended reasonably well and always looked threatening going forward.

It’s good to see the players have learned some lessons from the first two games, they’ve worked hard on the training pitch and it showed. We were a lot more focussed today and it’s now important that we are consistent in our level of performance and continue to improve. We have two home games coming up which we need to try and win in order to keep pace with Portsmouth who are off to a bit of a flyer at the top”

There will be an immediate opportunity for Colchester to further improve their league position this Sunday when the third placed U’s will take on Brighton & Hove Albion Women who currently sit in second spot, three points ahead of Colchester. The game is a 2pm kick off at Stanway Rovers Hawthorns ground.

Colchester United: Runnacles, West (Southgate 74), Henderson, Fagg, Jiggins, Guyon, Heaslip, Doyle, Larkin (Rushen 87), Bass, Gowland (Parnell 83)

Colchester Scorers: Jiggins 11, OG 29, Gowland 81, Doyle 87