SLOUGH crushed Chelmsford 9-0 on Saturday but the unbeaten Conference East leaders had to work a lot harder than the scoreline would indicate.

Team captain Kathryn Mcgonigle admitted: “We thought Chelmsford were one of the best teams we’ve played this season and the score doesn’t actually reflect the game.

“Our goalkeeper (Asha Tranquille-Day) had quite a lot to do especially in the first-half, but our third and fourth goals seemed to end their resolve a bit.”

Slough scored only twice in the first-half, with seven goals coming in the last 33 minutes of the match played at Upton Court Road.

Leading scorer Amy Sheehan opened the scoring on 20 minutes and doubled the lead four minutes later with a penalty stroke.

However, the hosts took until the 37th minute before finding the net again, with Alex Scott the player on target.

Melissa Ball and Charly Brydon scored in quick succession to extend Slough’s advantage to five-nil.

With Chelmsford starting to wilt under pressure, the home side continued to blaze the goal trail.

Sheehan completed her hat-trick with Brydon and Ball both netting again before Laura Bailey completed the scoring two minutes from time.

“Some of the goals were fantastic,” said Mcgonigle. “We had quite a few penalty corners with players scoring off Dilly Newton shots with deflections.

“Amy was again in great form. One of her goals came from a good individual effort, while the other two were brillianty set up for her.”

Sheehan’s third hat-trick of the season took her goal tally to 13, the highest in all four divisions of the Investec League.

Slough, who hold a seven-point lead over second-placed Cambridge City, have another home game this Sunday (12.30pm push-back) when sixth-in-the-table Harleston Magpies are the visitors.

“They could be tricky opponents,” said Mcgonigle. “We should win, but then we said that before the Wimbledon game and we could only draw.

“There’s always a danger of slipping up, and we will need to play to our strengths against Harleston.”

Slough men won for the second week in succession, defeating British Airways 4-1 at home in Middx, Berks, Bucks & Oxon Regional Two.

It is a big change around in the team’s fortunes as they had failed to win any of their opening four games.

They are now up to 10th in the table, but just two points behind fifth-placed West Hampstead 2s.

For the second week running the scoring honours went to Gurlal Singh Buttar with two goals. Ryan Herbert and Mindaugas Spalgenas completed the scoring.

Slough will be aiming to make it three wins in a row when they visit Bracknell this Saturday.

Their hosts are one place above Slough with the same number of points, but with a slightly superior goal difference.