We welcomed striker Sophie Davies into the team for her first appearance after signing during the week, and she made an immediate impact, combining well with Sarah Levitt before hitting a shot that beat the 'keeper only to see it come back off the post, where Chrissie Richardson was on hand to finish and give us a perfect start after a couple of minutes.

Sarah Levitt added a second a few minutes later. Hilton pulled one back with their first strike on goal after we conceded a free kick on our right, and defended it with too high a line, and then didn't anticipate or react to the ball over the top and beyond our back line who had to turn to face our goal but were beaten to the ball by the striker.

A frantic opening quarter of an hour was completed when a Hilton defender collided with their goalkeeper who fell to the floor and injured her knee as she fell. An ambulance was called and she was evacuated to hospital. We understand there's nothing broken but may be some ligament related injury. We wish Chloe a speedy recovery.

After a lengthy delay the game restarted, but neither team was able to really establish themselves and at half time it remained 2-1 - although Jordele did put the ball in the net with an excellent finish after some great work by Ottie on the left, only for it to be ruled out for offside.

Our play in the first half had been quite hurried at times, and although there had been some good combinations, we resorted to long balls more than we would have liked - although we had generally defended well, restricting Hilton to just one attempt on target. So in the second half we were looking for a little more composure on the ball and to keep it similarly secure at the back.

The second half saw an improved performance all round as we stepped up a gear and started to pick out our passes much better. Sarah Levitt extended our lead not long after the restart and we were perhaps having the better of general play, but we were caught out by a straight ball that turned our defence and left us one v one with the striker, who steered the ball wide of Fran.

At 3-2 the game was in the balance and becoming more open. Fran was called into action more, making a couple of good saves at this important stage of the game - helped on one occasion by Hannah making an important clearance from in front of the post. Jordele Folkes eased the tension a little when she scored with about twenty minutes to go, and when Sophie Davies netted a few minutes later we were able to relax a little more - the icing on the cake being applied by Sarah Levitt completing her hat-trick with a "worldy" into the top corner from 30 yards out, and by Jordele meeting a cross from Chrissie to head in for her second of the game.

This was a better performance and result and it was good to be finding the target again. Although Hilton never made it easy there were periods when we made hard work of it, but we finished with a flourish. Some of our build up play was really good, particularly down the flanks with Ottie putting in an impressive and committed performance on the left, and Chrissie looking more at home on the right. It was particularly pleasing for Sophie to top off an impressive debut with a goal, while the confidence of Jordele and Sarah in front of goal will have been boosted by their strikes today.

The unpredictability of this league was emphasised by today's results with runaway leaders Woodlands beaten by Buxton. Next Sunday we have a break from the League when we are at home to Dronfield in the League Cup.