Coventry City Ladies quickly erased the memory of last week's lacklustre display at Copsewood, with a well-deserved win over West Bromwich Albion.
The Sky Blues were quickly into their stride from the start and took the lead as early as the 3rd minute when Cherelle Archibald held up the ball 30 yards from goal and rolled it into the path of Danni Saulter. Saulter advanced into the box before crashing the ball past Nat Hall into the roof of the net from 15 yards.
Hall made good saves to deny Jade Formaston, Katy Moran and Kelly Pinner to restrict the Sky Blues' lead as the home side continued to dominate; and City were made to pay the price when a sloppy ball out of defence was seized upon by Albion's Hayley Phillipowsky and driven at pace into the 6 yard box where Robyn James nipped in to toe home despite the best efforts of Kelly Pinner and Adele Rogers to block.
There followed some nervous minutes for the Sky Blues with too many unforced errors creating pressure on the home defence, but gradually Moran and Jade Ogle re-asserted control of midfield and on 32 mins Moran fed Saulter who finished low, left footed into the corner of the net.
Within 90 seconds the Sky Blues went 3-1 ahead. This time Saulter turned provider with a measured pass to Helen Dermody in space on the left. Dermody burst past the full back into the box and rifled the ball past Hall into the far corner.
The rest of the half was all one way traffic and at half time, the Sky Blues were well worth their two goal lead. H-T 3-1
The home side continued to press from the re-start with the hard working Archibald in particular unlucky not to increase City's lead. After a well struck shot that cannoned off the inside of the post the lofty striker was then denied by a great save from Hall and had a good penalty shout denied by referee Martin Hancock. City's frustration was compounded just moments later when Albion were awarded a penalty. As the Baggies made their first foray forward Jenny Lowe was adjudged to have pushed James off the ball. Phillipowsky stepped up a fired in an unstoppable spot kick.
On the hour Danni Saulter's 30 yard strike brought an acrobatic one handed save from Hall and in the closing stages both Formaston and substitute Kelly-Ann Willis drove inches wide of Hall's left hand post, but at full-time the score remained 3-2.
Manager Paul Cudby was quick to praise his side's attitude "This was the perfect response to last weekend's disappointment at Copsewood, where we only seemed able to hit the woodwork".
Cudby continued "The girls knew they hadn't played well last week but were determined to put it right today against a side we expect to be genuine title contenders. We got off to a great start and scored three quality first half goals and could have had more. We now need to take this confidence into next week's game at Wolves. I could go through our entire team & say how well they all did but it'd be unfair to single anyone out as they all contributed so much today".
Line-up: Rogers, Pinner (Coley 72), Lowe, Ogle, Lynch (c), Bryenton, Formaston (Willis 84), Moran, Archibald (Henson 85), Saulter, Dermody. Unused subs: Williamson, Forbes.
Goals: Saulter (3 & 32), Dermody (34).
Yellow Cards: None.
Red Cards: None.