OOH Lincoln Ladies F.C. (7) v (0) Sheffield Wednesday

OOH Lincoln kicked off their 2008/2009 season with an emphatic 7-0 victory over their south Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

The rout began with a Carla Ward hat-trick in the first half, with Ward netting her fourth alongside a brace courtesy of England international striker Amanda Barr and one from Kerry Smith in the second period.

The Owls had two chances to go ahead of the hosts early on, the first saw Rachael Skeemer drive on from midfield leaving herself with only one defender to beat, but she fired her shot straight at Lincoln centre-half Kate Wooldridge, the ball rebounding harmlessly back towards midfield. The other came from a cross from the left, which left Lincoln's England international keeper Kay Hawke stranded - it found the head of a Sheffield striker who guided the ball powerfully towards the near post, but left back Mel Cook headed the ball off the line to save the Lady Imps from going behind early on.

Lincoln's goal tally started with just nine minutes on the clock. With the hosts having most of the possession, the ball eventually fell to Carla Ward just inside the area, she fired a speculative low hard shot across the goal that just managed to find its way in at the far post, leaving the diving keeper with no chance.

Ward's second came five minutes later when she gathered the ball just inside the penalty area and fired hard towards goal through a mass of defenders, again leaving the keeper with no chance.

The Lincoln central midfielder's hat trick came on 38 minutes when she again found herself with the ball just ten yards from the goal-line, she turned on a sixpence to fire home to give her team an unassailable 3-0 lead at half time - however Skeemer once again managed to beat the Lady Imps defence in injury time of the first period, this time to go one-on-one with keeper Kay Hawke. Her shot was bang on target forcing an incredible diving save from the England keeper to keep Lincoln's scoresheet unblemished.

OOH Lincoln Ladies will kick off their 2008/2009 season at home this coming Sunday against Sheffield Wednesday, following the postponement of their match away against Newcastle last week due to a flooded pitch. 

Lady Imps manager Rod Wilson's players beat the Owls on both outings last season, inflicting a hefty 6-2 defeat on them early on away from home - but their victory at Collingham was a far closer affair, Lincoln gaining only the narrowest of possible 1-0 wins over their South Yorkshire rivals to complete the double. 

Although Sheffield Wednesday went down 3-2 to Manchester City last weekend, Wilson is aware that his side have not kicked a ball in anger yet this season and expects his opening game of the season against Wednesday to be a difficult test for his match-rusty players. 

"It will be nice to get this season underway at last, said Wilson". It's not nice to be sat on a coach at 7.45am, then the game being called off before we depart. However that postponement gave us a chance to get one or two players back to fitness, so in hindsight that may well have been a blessing in disguise for us. It's always a tough encounter against Sheffield Wednesday, they will come to us with a game-plan, probably to sit back deep and frustrate us. My message to the players is we've got to be patient but at same time if we can score an early goal I would expect us to go on and win comfortably. Also I'm quite excited about one or two of the younger players coming into our squad this week. Some of these players have come through our own club youth system rather than the Centre of Excellence system, so I'm particularly excited about that" he said. 

Lincoln play away at West Bromwich Albion tonight in a hastily arranged friendly following the postponement of last weeks clash against Newcastle Utd.