Not a good day at the races!

After a bright opening half hour in which the visitors passed the ball well and created a number of chances the game ran away from Woodley, conceding three goals before the break which owed more to poor defending than Ascot’s creative play.

With Rosie Page-Smith prominent in much of United’s forward and Ellen Surtees and Becky Lowes enjoying plenty of space on the wings, Woodley showed their intent from the start with Jess Hall seeing an effort land on top of the net before the lead was taken in the fifteenth minute. Good one two play saw Clara Stringer one on one with home keeper Charlotte Cox and having knocked the ball past the keeper was tripped for a penalty that Page-Smith converted.

Moments earlier Woodley had survived a scare when Ascot in a rare attack kit the upright.

As the half progressed Ascot started to cause the visitors defence problems and equalised on the half hour when Lucy Holzman-Clark broke free of Gemma Bloor to score past Bonnie Messitt from the edge of the penalty area.

Six minutes later the lead had been extended following slack marking at a corner and despite two good saves by Cox resulting in United corners, a third Ascot goal was added in stoppage time when Messitt parried a shot over the goal line before clearing it.

Needing a positive response to the start of the second half, United got off to the worse possible start conceding from another corner two minutes after the restart with a fifth conceded after fifty six minutes.

A positional change saw Sophie Ali move into midfield where her passing had a positive effect on the team as Woodley started enjoy possession and again put pressure on the home goal and were rewarded with Lowes first for the club on seventy three minutes to reduce the deficit. However, any thought of a comeback were undone six minutes later with Ascot completing the scoring.

Despite the score, there were positives in the way the ball was passed and chances created. The challenge is to be positive when defending.