Exeter City extending their winning run to three games with a convincing away at over Forest Green Rovers
City started at a high tempo, passing the ball well and switching the play to try and create early chances.
The first real chance fell to Sian Chapman after 12 minutes, when a great through ball from Zoe Watkins opened up the opposition defence, but the shot was narrowly wide from close range.
A minute later, Forest Green failed to clear their lines, and the ball fell to Kat Mundy 20 yards out, who unleashed a great right-foot shot to the bottom left corner to open the scoring.
Exeter were now switching the play with ease and a great move down the right resulted in an excellent cross from Carmen Morrison, which found the head of Sophie Gillies who finished at the far post. The Grecians were now dominating play and from a corner nearly extended the lead when a goalmouth scramble and a last-ditch tackle from Forest Green somehow kept the ball out.
Two minutes later the woodwork saved the hosts when a brilliant 30-yard volley from Watkins cannoned off the crossbar.
City’s efforts were finally rewarded again just before half-time, when a further fine move down our right and an excellent cross from Ella-Mae Miller, resulted in another superb header from Gillies to find the back of the net.
Exeter started the second half in a similar vein, but the opposition did try and push more players forward. This gave the City backline a bit more to do, but they coped admirably.
The Grecians continued to have the majority of the play, but they were not quite as fluent as before the break.
The fourth goal came after 75 minutes when a great overlapping run and shot from Jess Freeman-Roach was well saved by the keeper, but she could only parry it onto the post where Gillies followed up to score and complete a hat-trick of headers. With five minutes left, a Georgie Barbour-Gresham left foot shot grazed the opposition post.
Joint manager Clive Watts, said: “Overall it was a pleasing and professional display, with four good goals and a clean sheet. It was great to see the team passing the ball with such confidence and using the full width of the pitch, especially as Forest Green set themselves up to defend in numbers, making it difficult to play through them. Due to having a few players missing, we used the depth of our squad to give players valuable minutes and it was really good to see Billie Denny return to the starting 11 after a serious knee injury. This win also puts City to the top of the table after six games.”