Second Half display sees off the Rams.
Second half goals from Radburn, Little, Michalska and Ward gave OOH Lincoln Ladies a 4-0 home win in Sunday afternoon`s Northern Premier League match with Derby County Ladies.
The match began in tepid fashion, both teams perhaps lacking match practice after recent postponements. And as the heavens opened and cut up an already muddy pitch, neither side was able to fashion a clear chance on goal.
But after the very quiet opening half, the match burst into life 1 minute after the re-start. Paige Crossman crossed from the right wing and, with two team mates also in attendance, Jade Radburn stabbed the ball past the keeper to give the Lady Imps the lead.
Then on 52 minutes Michalska bore down on Derby`s defence and found Barker, whose shot was deflected wide.
From the resultant corner Leandra Little rose highest to plant Ward`s delivery firmly into the net for 2-0.
On the hour mark Lincoln were indebted to goalkeeper Kay Hawke, as she kept out a shot from Derby`s number 4 who had been given time to turn inside the penalty area.
Moments later Michalska tore down the inside left channel, outstripped her marker and saw her fierce shot deflected across goal.
Then on 67 minutes a clever backheel from makeshift forward Jade Radburn sent Michalska clear again, but her shot was blocked.
With Lincoln by now camped in their opponents` penalty area, on 80 minutes Michalska got the goal her tireless running deserved. A neat one-two with Radburn bought her some space and she blasted the ball into the top right hand corner of the net.
Then in the final minute, a hooked shot from Carla Ward looped high into the goal, as Little challenged the goalkeeper.
Despite the convincing margin of victory, Manager Rod Wilson felt that his side were well below-par in the first half.
“We weren`t bothering to track their players and basically it wasn`t good enough,” he said. “They outworked us, they outfought us and our movement off the ball was poor.
“It was definitely down to tiredness from inactivity. And maybe we`ve looked at the League table and thought Derby are down there.
“And the pitch today was appalling – nothing to do with Lincoln United, it`s just the weather – which can be a great leveller.”
In the absence of regular striker Stacey Aisthorpe, Wilson had to re-shuffle his forward line. He also changed the shape of his team at half time and was understandably pleased with the reaction.
“I`d also say we were struggling because we didn`t have a forward to play up front with Jodie Michalska,” he said.
“It was a lot of extra work for Jodie, up against Derby`s centre half who is an exceptionally good player.
“We tried playing Carla Ward off Jodie in a 4-4-1-1, but it didn`t really work because we didn`t have any control in midfield.
“Then we put Jade Radburn up there and told her to be strong, get her head on the ball and hold it up. I think that worked in the second half.
“But it`s not down to what I said – the players did it themselves. They`ve all been in the game long enough to know this is down to their own hard work in the second half.”
Lady Imps (4-4-1-1): Kay Hawke; Nicola Stray, Kate Wooldridge, Leandra Little, Brooke Johns (Shelly Futter 68); Paige Crossman (Randi Johns 68), Jade Radburn, Megan Harris (c) (Katie Durrands 86), Sophie Barker; Carla Ward; Jodie Michalska
By line : Dan Mooney
