Marieanne Spacey-Cale’s Southampton kicked-off their season with a 4-1 win at South Coast rivals Lewes yesterday.
The Saints’ four goals came from different players with Katie Wilkinson, Sophia Pharoah, Ella Morris and summer signing Molly Pike all on target at The Dripping Pan.
When speaking to the media after the match, Southampton boss Spacey-Cale admitted that she was glad to see her side’s hard work in pre-season pay off.
“Molly Pike’s been flying all through pre-season scoring goals and she has come in and scored,” Spacey-Cale said. “Ella Morris has come off the bench and scored, Katie Wilkinson’s got a goal as well and Sophia Pharoah’s scored all through pre-season.
“They’re working hard in training in the final third, I think that showed.”
The Saints had to work hard to get back into the game after going behind to a long range strike from Lewes’ new signing Hollie Olding in the first half. Spacey-Cale said that going a goal down spurred her team on.
She said “Lewes caused a few problems for us to iron out. Them scoring first I think gave us a little jolt and we realised that we had to be performing at our highest level to get anything out of the game. I thought second half, we did that.”
The win over Lewes saw Southampton go top of the Barclays Women’s Championship table on goal difference after the first round of matches. They sit level on points with Blackburn Rovers who claimed a victory over one of the title favourites in Birmingham City on Saturday. With the two teams facing each other this weekend, Spacey-Cale is taking each game as it comes.
“We’ve just got to keep focusing on the game ahead and keep focusing on the work we’re doing on the training pitch week in, week out,” The Saints boss said. “Things will be different throughout the season, but we’ve got to stay consistent in how we approach every game.
“This is a very, very competitive league. There’s going to be twists and turns, the table will change and the games will be turned on their head.”
Southampton host Blackburn Rovers at St Mary’s Stadium in their next Barclays Women’s Championship fixture on Sunday afternoon.