West Didsbury & Chorlton Women went to the top of the NWWRFL Division One South for the first time as they defeated Didsbury 7-2 to register their seventh consecutive league win.

Paul Caddick’s side were without Ellie Caddick, Vicky Kerr and Rachael Dunlop as Katy Wilman captained the side with Vicky Lomas making her first start since joining the club. There were also welcome returns on the bench for Shauna Edmondson and Lauren O’Neill.

West started brightly as Vicky Lomas saw an effort well blocked by the Didsbury goalkeeper on eight minutes. The lead arrived on 11 minutes as Jami Hodges played in Chloe Spencer on the left, the West number eight found Sophie Bracegirdle at the far post who headed home. It was 2-0 two minutes later as Elizabeth Livesey played a perfect through ball to Bracegirdle who rounded the keeper before pulling it back to Lomas to tap into an empty net.

A third arrived shortly after as Lomas burst down the right and crossed in to Hodges to tap in at the far post to make it 3-0 with less than 20 minutes on the clock. The visitors didn’t give up and took advantage of a defensive reshuffle that saw Katy Wilman forced off injured as Stacey Burton fired home to make it 3-1 on 26 minutes. It was almost 3-2 from the restart as a long ball over the top put Didsbury through only to see an effort rebound off the inside of the post.

West recovered an added a fourth on 35 minutes as Orla Conlon found Elizabeth Livesey on the right side of the penalty area with the West forward firing across the goalkeeper into the top corner. It was Livesey’s 11^th goal of the season taking her tally to 26 for West in just 25 starts and give West a 4-1 half time lead.

A brilliant cross made it 5-1 on 56 minutes as a superb whipped in cross from the right hand side from Livesey sought to pick out Spencer but the ball was turned in by the boot of a Didsbury defender. Nicole Denton  added a second for Didsbury with 20 minutes remaining as the forward showed a terrific burst of pace before slotting into the bottom corner.

West pressed on in search of further goals and Hannah Mitchell added to her collection of great strikes as she fired into the top corner from the edge of the area after the visitors who initially cleared a West corner.  The seventh arrived from a set piece as Chloe Spencer’s whipped in delivery was headed into the far corner by Amy Vyas; her first goal for West since joining the club in the summer and West’s 16^th different scorer this season.