Ladies ease to comfortable victory
Sarah Kempson scored her second hat-trick in succession as Pompey Ladies routed Plymouth 6-0 in their first league fixture of 2016.
But it was Ellie Bloomfield who broke the deadlock with a close-range finish after 17 minutes at Privett Park.
Kempson then opened her account for the afternoon, chipping the ball over Argyle keeper Rebecca Kyle from the edge of the box.
The hosts were unable to add to their lead before the break, but the goals flowed in the second half.
Kempson added a third on the hour mark, slotting a penalty into the bottom left corner after Gemma Hillier had been fouled in the box.
And she completed her treble from the spot a few moments later, this time following a challenge on Lucy Quinn.
It was Molly Clark who then increased the advantage, beating the onrushing Kyle to the ball and poking it into the net.
And substitute Tash Stephens completed the scoring on 70 minutes when she arrived at the near post to nod home.
Plymouth’s day got even worse late on, with Jodie Chubb picking up a second booking for fouling Clark and receiving her marching orders.
Blues boss Perry Northeast said: “I was generally very pleased with the performance of our players and the result was just what we were looking for.
“No disrespect to our opponents, but we wanted to control the tempo from first whistle to last – and that’s exactly what happened.
“They have just appointed a new manager and it was his first game in change, so we were expecting their players to be up for the game.
“That just meant I was even more impressed with how we played and it’s always nice to score so many goals.
“Now we need to build on this result when we travel to West Ham this weekend and that’s likely to be a sterner test.
“We’ll be working hard in training in the lead-up to that and there are still a few areas where we’re looking to improve.”
Pompey: Beazley; Taylor (Benson 62), Rutherford, Sievwright (Atkinson 71), Bazan; Kempson, Clark, Bloomfield, Quinn; Hillier (Stephens 60), Sherwood