Megan Fox celebrates with Kirsty Barton.
Image by: Geoff Penn
ALBION 15Owen '2, '43, '49, '63
Gibbons '5, '13
Gurr '25
Blackie '38, '74
Perry '45+1, '59
Fox '66, '88
Barton '78
Cooper '89
HASSOCKS 0
• Albion through to the final for a fourth consecutive season.
• Centre of excellence player Phoebe Leitch makes her senior debut.
• Victory is Albion’s biggest of the season to date.
• Albion's 10th win in last 11 games in all competitions.
Brighton & Hove Albion women cruised into the Sussex Challenge Cup Final for a fourth consecutive season following a resounding 15-0 victory over Hassocks at Culver Road.
Manager James Marrs named a strong line up to face the Robins, with Phoebe Leitch the only player in the starting line-up not to have a made a first-team appearance.
Albion dispelled any hopes of an unlikely upset with two goals inside five minutes; Charlotte Owen slotted the ball home from Charlotte Gurr’s cross before Fliss Gibbons was alert to react to a mistake from keeper Laura Dolbear to double their advantage.
Gurr and Owen both went close again to adding a third, but Gibbons extended the lead in the 13th minute after she rounded Dolbear and fired the ball into an empty net.
Dolbear and then the crossbar denied Barton and Gibbons from netting a fourth goal, but this soon came courtesy of Gurr in the 25thminute, who fired home a fine first-time volley from Jay Blackie’s cross.
Blackie then got herself on the score-sheet 13 minutes later with a clinical first-time strike from inside the box after some neat footwork by Gurr on the left-hand side.
Owen scored her second and Albion’s sixth goal two minutes before the break with another first-time volley at the near post, before Sophie Perry added a seventh in stoppage time with a close-range strike.
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The Seagulls got an eighth goal four minutes after the restart as a miscued effort from Perry fell into the path of Owen, who put the ball over the line.Perry added a ninth ten minutes later when her free kick deflected past Dolbear, before Owen took the scoreline into double figures after reacting to a mistake by the keeper and nodded the ball into an unguarded net.
Substitute Megan Fox made it 11 with another deflected strike in the 66th minute and then Blackie scored Albion’s 12th goal eight minutes later, after cutting inside and curling a shot past Dolbear.
The Seagulls continued to increase the scoreline when Gurr poked the ball through Dolbear’s legs to score a 13th in the 78thminute, before Fox fired home a 14th ten minutes later after slotting home a cross from the left-hand side.
A minute later, the scoring was complete as Deanna Cooper fired an excellent volley past Dolbear to send Albion comfortably through into next month’s final.
ALBION: Baker; Leitch (Rowe 64), Taylor, Cooper, Gurr; Carlton, Blackie, Barton; Perry, Owen (Lock 64), Gibbons (Fox 64).
[h=3]ALBION V BIRMINGHAM
[/h] SATURDAY 21ST FEBRUARY, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V LEEDS
[/h] TUESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V DERBY
[/h] TUESDAY 3RD MARCH, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
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