Ladies Hit 19 (NINETEEN) In Opening Home Fixture!!

The Ladies 'A' squad hosted FC Kilmarnock in their opening home game of the season.

Hibernian produced their biggest ever Scottish Women's Premier League victory on Sunday in sweeping aside FC Kilmarnock 19-0 at the Hibernian Training Centre.  Willie Kirk's side keep up their good start to the new season and ran riot during the 90 minutes with the goals coming from McWhinnie (4), Emslie (4), Pia (3), McBride (3), Murray (2), Jones, Robertson and Kennedy.

Straight from kick off Hibernian set about attacking their opponents and they were denied a goal in the opening seconds when Kilmarnock goalkeeper Mason produced a stunning save to keep out a curling effort from Murray after good link up play by McWhinnie.  McBride then went close with a shot from distance before Hibernian's early pressure paid off on 4 minutes when Ellen Pia smashed a cross from McWhinnie high into the visitor's net.

Seconds after the restart Pia and McWhinnie combined once more but this time the latter's far post cross was just missed by McBride.  Kilmarnock goalkeeper Mason was keeping her side in the game in the early stages with a string of fine saves to keep out efforts from McWhinnie and Murray and her side looked close to buckling under the Hibernian onslaught.  The home side made it 2-0 on 9 minutes when Mason did well to keep out a fierce drive from Lisa Robertson only for Rhonda Jones to smash the loose ball into the Kilmarnock net from close range.  Kilmarnock had no answer to a rampant Hibernian side and the Easter Road girls almost made it three soon after when Pia pounced on a mistake from Weeks to put McBride through on goal, the Scotland internationalist slipping the ball beyond the advancing Mason only for it to finish the wrong side of the post.

Debbie McWhinnie scored her first goal since rejoining the club on 15 minutes when she raced clean through on goal and producing a neat right foot finish before Kirsty McBride added a fourth goal seconds later following good link-up play from Murray and McWhinnie.  McWhinnie went close to a second goal of the afternoon when she raced onto a through ball from McBride before seeing her shot crash back off the post with goalkeeper Mason beaten.  Despite being four goals behind Kilmarnock tried to push forward and they had a couple of chances through Fairley, the first a powerful drive that was well pushed around the post by Lynn before the Kilmarnock striker headed wide from the resulting corner kick.

On the half hour mark new Hibernian signing Jenna Ross went close to getting the goal her impressive play deserved when her long range effort struck the cross bar before being turned into the net by the offside Pia.  A fifth goal however was only delayed for a few moments as McBride once more put Debbie McWhinnie through on goal and she produced a clinical finish.  The best goal of the game so far came from Joelle Murray on 37 minutes when, after a 12 pass team move, she curled an exquisite effort into the right hand corner of the net to make it 6-0.  The Hibernian midfielder produced a stunning finish but less than a minute later she perhaps should have scored again.  McWhinnie picked her out with an inch perfect cross but she could only volley over from close range.

Kilmarnock goalkeeper Mason was punished for a poor goal kick when McWhinnie cushioned a header down to Joelle Murray and she produced a powerful low drive that gave the shot stopper no chance.    Debbie McWhinnie then completed her hat-trick 3 minutes from half time when she turned a back post cross from Pia into the net with her knee.  The final attack of the first half saw Goudie clear from her goal-line after McBride looked to have slotted home a fine cross from Pia.

Half Time:  Hibernian Ladies 8 v 0 FC Kilmarnock

Hibernian got the second half underway and within 60 seconds they had netted twice more with Kirsty McBride grabbing both goals.  The first saw her smash a near post cross from McWhinnie into the net from close range before the midfielder provided a clinical finish after being sent through on goal seconds later.

Now into double figures Hibernian continued to penetrate the Kilmarnock defence almost at will and Murray went close with an angled drive across goal.  Debbie McWhinnie scored her fourth goal of the game after 50 minutes when she curled a tremendous free kick around the defensive wall and into the top left hand corner of the Kilmarnock net.  That was McWhinnie's last action of the afternoon as she, along with defender Brown, were replaced by Malcolm and Emslie as Hibernian coach Willie Kirk looked to give as many of his players some game time as possible.  The change paid immediate dividends as Jones' cross from the right was brought down on the chest by Pia to substitute Claire Emslie and she finished from close range.

Youngster Ellen Pia was in fantastic form and it took a great save from Kilmarnock goalkeeper Mason to prevent her from scoring on 54 minutes after she had evaded a number of challenges before creating the scoring opportunity.  Pia was the architect of Hibernian's next goal when she burst into the right hand side of the Kilmarnock penalty box before picking out Claire Emslie at the back post for her second goal of the afternoon.  Jenna Ross struck the woodwork for the second time in the gamebefore Hibernian scored goal number fourteen as Lisa Robertson cut through the Kilmarnock back line before drawing goalkeeper Mason and coolly slotting the ball into the net from 16 yards.  Hibernian coach Kirk then replaced Murray, McBride and Suzy Robertson with McCulley, Kennedy and Thomson.

Emslie was denied a hat-trick by a fantastic reaction stop from Mason before the Kilmarnock goalkeeper was beaten by an angled drive from Ellen Pia into the top right hand corner of the net.  Last season's top goal scorer, Laura Kennedy, was desparate to get amongst the goals as Hibernian pushed forward relentlessly but she was left frustrated as Mason twice denied her with good saves.  Lisa Robertson was inches away from turning a cross from Kennedy into the net on 70 minutes before Jones headed straight at Mason from a corner kick.  Claire Emslie became the third Hibernian player to complete her hat-trick when she raced onto a ball over the top from Thomson to net.

Kilmarnock goalkeeper Mason had at times prevented the Ayrshire side from an even heavier defeat but she was at fault for Hibernian's 17th goal when her kick out went straight to Kennedy.  The striker unselfishly slipped the ball to Ellen Pia and she produced a clinical finish to leave the goalkeeper stranded.  After setting up Pia's goal seconds earlier, Laura Kennedy got her name on the scoresheet when she turned a near post cross from Emslie beyond Mason 4 minutes from time.  There was no let-up from Hibernian who continued to attack Kilmarnock in waves and it was substitute Claire Emslie that netted the 19th of the afternoon after 87 minutes.  In the final minute of the match Hibernian were presented with a fantastic opportunity to score their 20th goal when Kennedy was taken down inside the penalty box by Dick and referee Morton pointed to the penalty spot.

Kennedy sent goalkeeper Morton the wrong way to net but had taken the penalty before referee Morton had signalled and therefore it had to be retaken.  This time Kennedy sent the ball to the goalkeeper's right and Mason capped off a fine individual display with a good save on an otherwise forgettable day for her side.

Full Time:  Hibernian Ladies 19 v 0 FC Kilmarnock

Hibernian Ladies:  Shannon Lynn, Rhonda Jones (C), Frankie Brown, Suzy Robertson, Kirsty McBride, Ellen Pia, Lisa Robertson, Debbie McWhinnie, Jenna Ross, Rebecca Zoltie, Joelle Murray.  Subs:  Ashley Watson, Stef Malcolm, Hollie Thomson, Claire Emslie, Laura Kennedy, Emma McCulley.

FC Kilmarnock:  Gill Mason, Lauren Stirling, Nikki Goudie, Kayleigh Weeks, Caryn Ferguson, Rachel Webb, Rebecca Taylor, Kirsty Munro, Kim Dick, Sheila Fairley, Caron Campbell..  Subs:  Robyn Cairns, Leanne Leonard.

Referee:  Fiona Morton

Head coach Kirk commented after the game "obviously as the scoreline suggests, it was an emphatic performance from the girls.  What i'm most delighted about was their professionalism throughout the 90 minutes.  They kept going forward and doing the things that were being asked of them and not once did they show disrespect to a very young Kilmarnock side.

Although neither of them scored, Jenna Ross and Rebecca Zoltie were excellent in the centre of midfield for us today.  They both won their tackles and pushed us forward with positive passing which meant that Kilmarnock struggled to get a breather throughout the 90 minutes.

It was another good, all-round team performance and a nice way to go into the international break.  We resume league business in a fortnight with a home game against Aberdeen before heading west to face Celtic the following week"

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