On a sunny afternoon at Oakwell it was Barnsley FC Ladies who got this friendly underway against higher league opposition Doncaster Rovers Belles. An opportunity to give the wider squad members a run out and they grabbed it with both hands as Shannon Durkin and Amy Woodruff running through the gaps between the Belles defenders, chasing through balls and it was Shannon Durkin chasing one such ball to play it across to Sophie Bell to open the scoring only the 2nd minute.
5th min Kathryn Smith threaded through to Darcie Greene to fire into the net.
7th min Danielle Whitham found a through ball to Shannon Durkin who finished smartly.
Innocuous 50-50 challenge saw the Belles midfielder No6 hobble off to be replaced by No 16
14th min Amy Woodruff was put through by Kathryn Bell to finish low across the keeper.
After this breath taking start the game settled down a bit with end to end play.
4-0 at half-time
Changes at half-time with Drew Greene coming on for Sophie Bell, Skye Kirkham for Carrie Simpson who was not tested in the first half as she made her first appearance. But another injury to a Belles player meant they were prepared to start the 2nd half with 10 players, but as this was a friendly Chris Hamilton saw an opportunity and Lissa Woodhouse put on a yellow shirt to play the 2nd half up front for Doncaster.
49 min from a deep free kick taken by the Belles Captain the 1st half keeper who was playing as an outfield player seized onto a ricochet clearance ball at the edge of the penalty area to shoot passed Skye Kirkham to score just inside the far post.
52 min Drew Greene was tripped as she raced through the centre by Belles No 8, she fell heavily and jarred her knee so came off to be replaced by Emily Ward.
61 min Shannon Durkin came off to be replaced by Ellie Brightmore.
69 min Amy Woodruff was substituted by Sophie Bell coming back on but this time up front.
Full time 4-1 win for Barnsley FC Ladies