A dominant performance from Chester Women seen the Blues record their second away win of the season.
It was a convincing win for the Seals and the perfect way to follow up their 5-0 win at Ashville in the cup.
Ashleigh Bullock opened the scoring with a powerful strike before Wythenshawe quickly responded through Jamie Leigh.
Two quickfire goals on the stroke of half time from both sides, as Georgia Kesley put the hosts ahead before an instant reply through Bullock.
Amy Smith put Chester back in the lead before Leigh again cancelled out the visitors lead.
Amy Broomhead came off the bench and made an instant impact getting herself a brace.
The Blues are now in third place four points off second placed Curzon Ashton FC Women, however, Curzon have two games in hand over the Seals.
With Burscough Dynamo withdrawing from the league Wythenshawe are now bottom of the table, winless, with just the one point.
The breakthrough came in the 11th minute as Laura Roberts played an inch perfect pass from the right channel, which broke the high line of Wythenshawe. Bullock latched onto the through ball and smartly rounded the keeper before smashing the ball into the open net.
Against the run of play the home side managed to equalise with a long ball over the top which clinical striker Leigh dispatched past goalkeeper Ana Duran.
Quickfire goals
A hectic few minutes at the end of the half as Lucy Adderley put into a tackle which ricocheted into the path of Kesley that made no mistake in front of goal. The forward fired the ball into the top left of the goal from the edge of the area.
Bullock brought Chester level straight from the kick-off as the Seals shown great character to bounce back on the stroke of half time. Sarah Gill’s penetrating ball set free the creative midfielder as she calmly slotted home under the goalkeeper, for her second of the game.
After the restart Izzy Crooks continued to pull the strings in midfield and picked out a beautiful pass to Abi France. France timed her run perfectly and latched onto the ball, before rolling it across the box for Smith to put the visitors back ahead.
High line problems
All afternoon Chester utilised Wythenshawe’s high line and continuously managed to get in behind the defence. Rachel Lever was denied her ninth goal of the season after being flagged for offside. This was a recurring issue for the Seals as they struggled to time their runs and beat the offside trap.
Minutes after the controversial disallowed goal seen the home side go up the other end and equalise.
Again, Leigh drawn her side level after the Blues failed to clear their lines from a corner as her curled effort found the bottom left corner.
Super Sub
Broomhead replaced Gill as manager Martin Fitzsimons identified the need to change up the style of play from a hold up striker to a more versatile runner who breaks the line. Broomhead took full advantage of the high line as Crooks played the striker in behind to poke the past the keeper, for her second goal in as many games.
The impact sub killed the game off a minute later with a precise effort flying past the keeper via the post to secure all three points for Chester.
The Seals recorded back to back five goal hauls after last weekend’s 5-0 cup triumph against Ashville Ladies.
They now look ahead to next week’s game against Altrincham FC Ladies as the Blues look to carry on the momentum and close the gap on leaders Salford City FC Lionesses at the top of the table.
Check out manager Martin Fitzsimons thoughts below...
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