STAFFORDSHIRE University picked up their first points of the season with a convincing 16-2 victory over Aston.
The result was the Scorpions biggest victory in almost two years and lifted them up to fourth in the table.
A five goal haul by captain Carly Edwards was the highlight of the game as the women of the match put in her best performance of the season. Dimitri Chambers also continued his good recent form by picking up four goals and Marcus Howe scored his first hat-trick of the year.
The game started slowly and it took over seven minutes for Chambers to break the deadlock. He was on end to pick up the loose ball inside the fan after Edwards had seen her shot saved by the Aston keeper.
It wasn’t long until Staff’s doubled their lead through Edwards. As Kelly Stone battled with the keeper, James Perkins picked up the ball to find Edwards in space and she finished in what was almost an open goal.
The confidence within the home team was really starting to show and Edwards got her second of the game after being set up on the edge of the fan by Richard Christon.
In a rare attack Aston managed to pull a goal back after their attacker spun past the Scorpions defence to rifle a shot past Stephen Jinks.
Aston’s joy didn’t last for long though as Perkins picked the ball up from the resulting draw to put Staffs on the attack and after a goal-mouth scramble Ben Bradley picked the ball up to score his first ever league goal.
Bradley then turned provider as he fooled the Aston defence with a pass to pick out Chambers allowing him to get his second of the game. Bradley had looked certain to try his luck himself after a strong run but chose the unselfish act to pass the ball, catching the defence by surprise.
Howe then got his first of the game as he picked up a ground ball unchallenged and so was able to run straight at goal with time to pick his spot and bury the ball past the helpless keeper.
By this time the home teams superiority was beginning to show and their added confidence led to a fine team goal. Jinks’ long clearance found Jay Armstrong who exchanged a neat one two with Christon before breezing past the Aston defence to score in the top corner.
After this the result never looked in doubt and it was a case of how many Staffs would score.
Edwards added two more either side of a rare Aston goal and then Chambers added his third when he faught off competition from three Aston players to win a ground ball and capitalised on the defence being out of position to score.
Izzy Wilding then topped off the move of the match with her second goal for Staffs. The battling fresher picked the ball up following a miss from Chambers to score low in the corner of the net.
At the end of the third quarter Staffs were winning by nine goals, but eager to improve their negative goal difference they came out for the last quarter strongly adding five more goals to the total, two more from Howe and one a piece from Edwards, Chambers and Armstrong.
They now go into next weeks game with Birmingham needing to win by six goals to take third spot.
Staffordshire: Stephen Jinks, Dimitri Chambers, Laura Morrissey, Mimi Roch, Thomas Jenkins, Karina Gale, Christopher Pike, Nicola Steadman, Carly Edwards ©, James Perkins, Jay Armstrong, Ben Bradley, Richard Christon, Kelly Stone, Izzy Wilding, Elle Morrisson.
Referee: Stuart Bausor
Man of the match: Dimitri Chambers
Women of the match: Carly Edwards
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