Bath City Women lose opening friendly

Goals from Tash Crew and Jess Larby consigned Bath City Women to defeat in their first pre-season friendly against Weston-super-Mare Women. Crew opened the scoring after just 75 seconds when her well-struck curler from 20 yards deceived Sadie Farley. Fears of an avalanche of goals were swiftly extinguished as the Romans regrouped well with Tanea Wright firing their best chance over following a direct run from new recruit Libby Goater. Weston doubled their lead on 59 minutes when Larby touched home after Farley failed to gather a cross to the back post. A slalom run by Tara Taylor concluded with the captain dragging wide while the hosts missed a couple of chances late on to further rubber-stamp their win. Overall it was a promising performance from Matt Abreu’s side in a well-fought contest at the Optima Stadium 3G.

In the afternoon, Bath City’s new Development side got off to a flier in their first friendly, hitting Hutton Ladies for 10 without reply at Odd Down. Tamzin Dunne fired in a hat-trick inside 20 minutes with new signing Sophie Dooling also on target. Liv Davis stroked home a fifth before the break before Tracey Hartnett’s side hit a further five after the interval. Dunne confidently added two more with Ceris Evans and an Esme Fensome double rounding off the scoring in a comprehensive success.