Women's Welsh League

Barry Town Ladies 8 - Caerphilly Castle 0

GOING into this fixture presented a big chance for Barry Town United Ladies to finish 2016 top of the Women's Welsh League.

Following last week's excellent away victory at Caldicot Town, confidence was sky high going into this home fixture with Caerphilly.

This was also set to be an emotional affair with Barry's stalwart Robyn Hall making her last appearance for the club before leaving to pursue a career in the army from January

The game started off with Barry controlling possession with numerous chances going begging. Some wasteful finishing and a visiting goalkeeper in fine form thwarted the home side.

The breakthrough finally came late in the first half, and as many times this season, it was the inform Hungarian striker Luca Laky who opened the scoring.

Almost immediately from the restart, player coach Stacey Ayling added to her seasons tally with a thunderous effort from 30 yards to put Barry 2 - 0 up at the break.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first with Barry controlling the majority of possession but this time were more ruthless in firing in another six goals.

Captain Stevie Cook continued to lead by example and scored two excellent goals from distance taking her tally to almost double figures for the season which is a great effort from midfield.

Laky continued to cause havoc for the Caerphilly defence and completed another fine hat-trick. Her development in a year since joining the club has been outstanding and her link-up play and eye for goal is proving a major force in Barry's rise up the league table.

Substitute Emily Hill grabbed a goal late on and made an excellent contribution from the bench. Finally, to put the icing on the cake, Robyn Hall just had to score to complete a memorable day to finish off proceedings at 8 - 0.

Hall was presented with a signed shirt by the players and coaching staff after the game which was a parting gift for a player always welcome back in the future.

The team are proud to have had this young talent at the club who joined back in the 2013/14 season.

Robyn was clearly emotional at the end of the game but commented; "I just wanted to say how sad I am to leave. I got to know everyone and it was such a pleasure to play with you girls. I can't think of a better bunch of girls to play with and to get to the top of the league with before I move on.

"Thank you to everyone for making it so special and I wish you lot the best of luck in the future."

The result leaves Barry in a strong position going into 2017 with high hopes of a possible promotion to the Women's Welsh Premier League in the offering.

A very long way to go yet but the team has been showing tremendous improvement since the beginning of the season with a mix of experience and young players all fighting for the cause.

Team: Megan Davies, Emily Mortimore, Hannah Moger, Emma Bridgeman, Shanice Donavon, Megan Bailey, Abi Smyth, Stevie Cook (C), Luca Laky, Stacey Ayling, Robyn Hall, Emily Hill