North Wales Women’s League East: Henllan bang in eight and end Airbus’ unbeaten run

NORTH WALES WOMEN’S LEAGUE EAST DIVISION – JANUARY 12

CPD Merched Henllan 8 (Cattell 5 & 30, B Roberts 6, 16, 69 & 87, R Edwards 45+1, L Williams 75)
Airbus UK Broughton 2 (Pratt 29 & 49)

Playing their first game in seven weeks, Henllan showed no rustiness as they remained top of the East Division courtesy of an emphatic 8-2 victory over previously unbeaten Airbus.

The hosts started brightly and took the lead after five minutes when a Lleucu Williams effort was saved by keeper Sian Smith and rebounded to Abby Cattell who slotted into the bottom corner,

A minute later Cattell’s perfectly-weighted pass put Beth Roberts through for number two.

In the 16th minute, Roberts smashed in her second from a Gwenno Williams cross.

On the half an hour mark, Airbus got on the scoresheet when top scorer Laura Pratt netted from 25 yards.

Cattell restored the villagers three-goal cushion with a beautiful curling shot into the top corner for her 13th goal of the campaign on the stroke of half time

Rhian Edwards made it 5-1 after good work by Mabli Fitzgerald.

The Broughton-based side came flying out of the blocks at the start of the second half,and a comeback looked possible when Pratt made it a double after a great ball by Ffion Jones,

Henllan’s defence were superb for the next 20 minutes with player of the match Siwan Lloyd in excellent form.

It was game over on 70 minutes when Roberts completed her fourth hat-trick in 6 league games, after another assist by Cattell,

Six minutes later Lleucu Williams notched the goal she deserved with a left foot shot from outside the box.

In the final few minutes Roberts chalked up goal number 31 for the season after Sophie Evans’ shot was saved.

Coach Gerwyn Jones was delighted with the team’s performance saying it was the best they had played all season considering they had been without a fixture for nearly 2 months or hardly trained.

• Next weekend Henllan have a local derby against Denbigh Town Ladies. The teams last met in September when Denbigh rallied from 3-0 down to win 4-3. That remains Henllan’s only league defeat.