Brentford FC Women’s First Team came from a goal behind at home to claim an impressive 3-1 victory over high-flying Dulwich Hamlet Reserves. An Ellen Wardlaw brace along with a deflected strike from captain Mollie Holmes was enough for The Bees to take all three points against the team that started the day in second place. It was also enough to bounce The Bees to fourth in the table.

Head Coach Karleigh Osborne was most pleased with the way in which his side responded to last week’s loss. The Bees suffered a 2-1 reverse against Dorking Wanderers last week and Karleigh was especially pleased with the response, factoring in the quality of opposition his side were up against.

Karleigh said: “It was a great way to bounce back from last week particularly due to the way we lost; them scoring twice in the last few minutes and stealing all three points. But I thought the girls were brilliant today, we looked a threat going forward and we were very solid out of possession as well. Overall, I’m very happy.”

Despite The Bees starting the game brightly it was the away side who broke the deadlock against the run of play. Around 35 minutes into the game and Dulwich swung the ball in from a corner and from the penalty spot the ball was headed home into the bottom left corner; leaving Stacey Bishop in the Brentford goal no chance.

The home side reacted well to going behind and just five minutes later found their equaliser. Following good play down the right-hand side the ball was delivered to the back post, Wardlaw calmly brought the ball under her spell and slotted the ball under the onrushing keeper.

Brentford continued in the same vein at the beginning of the second half and on the hour mark took the lead for the first time. The ball dropped to Holmes who decided to strike from distance, rather fortunately the shot took a massive deflection and rolled agonisingly into the bottom right corner as the opposing keeper desperately scrambled to keep it from crossing the line. Brentford now led 2-1 and Holmes will try and claim the goal as her own.

Just five minutes later and Wardlaw grabbed her second and Brentford’s third of the game. Holmes delivered a wonderful ball out to the left and Wardlaw cut inside before unleashing a wonderful strike into the top left to give Brentford breathing room.

Wardlaw was denied her hat-trick with about 15 minutes left to play. The Bees moved gloriously through the gears again with a sweeping move that ultimately released Wardlaw but her low driven effort was well saved by the keeper.