Six-goal stunner marks a perfect start to the season for Luton Town Ladies 1st XI

This Saturday witnessed the return of league fixtures for the first time since December 2020, and Luton Town Ladies 1st XI capitalised on this with a stunning 6-1 win over Letchworth 3s.

Despite a 9am pushback time, the girls arrived ready and raring to go, looking to start this season off on a high. Within seconds of the starting whistle, Ashley Masukusa made a brilliant interception of a loose Letchworth pass that led to around ten minutes of solid attacking in Letchworth's 23m area. Suzanne Starkey capitalised on this with a perfectly placed pass that was guided into the goal by a Letchworth defender, taking the girls 1-0 up before the 10-minute mark.

Upon the restart, Luton came at Letchworth with the same force, dominating play and maintaining the majority of the possession. Another fantastic shot from Starkey managed to find it's way home in a crowded D, taking the girls up to 2-0. This was followed by a goal from Letchworth, when a loose ball and breakaway caught our defenders on the back foot, however Starkey soon came back to claim a hattrick with another goal just before the half-time whistle, and Luton headed into the interval 3-1 up.

After the break, Luton continued to fight with the same intensity as had been shown in the first half. Not satisfied with scoring one hattrick in the game, Starkey got to work on scoring her second. Her fourth and fifth goals were facilitated by some fantastic battling and skills demonstrations by Ellie Shadbolt-Mackay and Kate Starkey on the wings, both of whom created the opportunity for Starkey to slot home Town's next two goals. As the temperature started to climb and legs started to tire by the last 10 minutes of the game, Letchworth had a couple of opportunities to mount a comeback, however the first was denied by an impressive run back and clearance in the D from Ayse Samiloglulari, and the second was prevented by an incredible dive and stick-save at the left post by goalkeeper Tammy Clark.

Once the ball got back to Letchworth's end of the pitch again, a solid press by the forward line assisted in keeping it there, and allowed for Starkey to claim her sixth goal (and second hattrick!) of the game following a goal-line battle with the Letchworth defence.

A fantastic game all round, with every player having fantastic individual performances which contributed to the incredible team victory. In a surprise to nobody, Suzanne Starkey won player of the match for her incredible performance in front of goal!
Luton head into the second week of fixtures currently third in the table, and will be playing the current second-place team Rickmansworth 1s at 12:00 at home next week.