Southend and Benfleet 1s – 8 (Sarah Conway 2, Kirsty Edmunds 4, Naomi Barker 1, Ashlie Colman 1)
Maldon – 0

This week saw Southend and Benfleet 1s host Maldon, in S&Bs long awaited first home match since the Christmas break; and what a difference the home field advantage made for S&B. Right from the start S&B were set on dominating the visitors and they didn’t have to wait long before Sarah Conway would put S&B on the scoreboard in the first few minutes of the game. In her spectacular débuting performance Stacey Chandler and Jodie Linge would defend brilliantly together to keep the Maldon attacks from breaching the S&B defensive D and ping it out Lora Sharples who was waiting on the wings to shuttle it up the pitch. Kirsty Edmunds was on fire this week and would take on the Maldon defence singlehandedly to earn herself a hat-trick making it 4-0 before half time was called.

S&B were buzzing after the restart and didn’t give Maldon a second of respite. Nicola Bryant acted as the central lynchpin on many an occasion this week as S&B spread play from one side of the pitch to other, attacking Maldon’s defence from all angles and with the precise and quick passing witnessed from all the seasiders’ throughout the match, it was inevitable that Conway would slot her second goal of the match passed the Maldon goalie. Caitlin Meredith and Hayley Middleton weren’t short of work this week as they worked to mark up a nippy Maldon attacker whilst driving the ball into the Maldon half. It wasn’t long before Naomi Barker smashed her way onto the scoreboard with a stonking strike from the top of the D. Ashlie Colman isn’t one to be left behind with one cracker of a later she ensured that all the S&B forwards bagged a goal this week. Edmunds wasn’t finished and after assisting with several of the goals, she went for her forth a minute after Colman’s to take the score to 8-0. Maldon never gave up though and even caught S&B unaware for a moment with a solo run from deep in their own half it looked like the Maldon attacker was set to take the S&B goalie one on one but S&B defence caught up and saw off the attack before she could strike, thus keeping the score at S&B – 8, Maldon – 0 with player of the match being justifiably awarded to Kirsty Edmunds.