Richard Luscombe ARGYLE ladies rounded off their excellent season with another thumping victory. It was a great end for manager Travis Rowland who had been informed during the week that his temporary role was being made permanent.
Argyle travelled to Hampshire missing a number of front line players but still managed to produce a quality performance. Once again, captain Kate Middleton took over the gloves due to the unavailability of Michaela Phillips.
Amber Pollock headed in a pinpoint Becky Dandridge cross at the far post on 12 minutes and Middleton then proved her worth by pulling off two great saves as Argyle struggled to get their passing game together. The turning point came in the 25th minute when Kayleigh Brown went off injured to be replaced by Dani Barr, with her all-round performance lifting the rest of the team.
Despite dominating the remainder of the half, they had to wait until the 42nd minute to add their second when a superb Barr free-kick caused confusion in the home defence and Becky Dandridge scrambled the ball over the line. Two minutes later it was all but ove,r as Argyle made a quick break with the ball going to Natasha Knapman, who found Zoe Cunningham to score.
Argyle were now in total control and ten minutes into the second half, full-back Jessie Boston added to the score when a corner was cleared directly to her, which she promptly slammed back into the net from the edge of the penalty area.
Striker Natasha Knapman suffered a head injury and in the 68th minute she was replaced by Ezme Wells who was playing her first game in seven weeks. Argyle were reduced to ten players when ten minutes from time Zoe Cunningham limped off injured.
This didn’t bother Argyle as Rowland moved Pollock up as the lone striker, a move rewarded within seconds as Wells set up Pollock who produced a clinical finish. Pollock’s pace continually troubled the home defence and with time running out, great work by Dandridge saw her unselfishly set up Pollock for her second hat trick in a row.
A delighted Rowland said: “It was a good all round performance despite having a sluggish start. We have been starting on the front foot through playing regular but once again our early performance was affected due to the game last week against Shanklin being called off. We just couldn’t get into a rhythm with passes going astray and continually losing the ball in midfield.
“The game changed when Dani Barr came on, she was immense. This seemed to settle the team and from then on there was only one team in it. We will take some time off until after our presentation evening on the 9th June when on the Sunday the girls are going to let their hair down at a water sports activity day in Cornwall. I am very lucky to be in this position because we have a great bunch of girls who all get on with each other.”