A home record attendance in the WSL of 382 saw Durham Women comfortably beat Watford Ladies 4-0 in their last home game of the season.
The hosts scored two goals in each half, a double from Courtney Corrie, with Jordan Atkinson and former Golden Girl Sasha Adamson also on the score-sheet.
It was a pretty even opening between both sides, and it took until the 20 minute mark before the game fired into life. Captain Sarah Wilson’s header was cleared off the line and straight at Nicki Gears, but she couldn’t quite sort her feet out and Amelia Pereira missed out on the rebound.
The deadlock was broken minutes later in spectacular fashion, as 16-year-old Corrie tried her luck with a dipping long range effort which sailed over the outstretched reach of Shayla Burgess.
Ten minutes before half-time and the Wildcats doubled their lead through in-form striker Atkinson. She received the ball on the edge of the box, turned her marker and curled an effort into the far corner of the goal.
It could have been three not long after, Gears stepped inside and struck the top of the bar with Burgess beaten.
The closest Watford came to opening their account came on the stroke of half-time, Anneka Nuttall driving her free-kick hard across the turf, which went wide of Anna Moorhouse’s goal, who, at times, was a bystander in the game.
Burgess was tested twice in as many minutes not long into the second half, Corrie forcing the goalkeeper to save well, before Gears beat Nicole Pepper in a race for the ball and shot straight at the youngster.
Gears was a constant threat throughout the game and won a free-kick after being fouled by Kim Farrow. The resulting set-piece saw Beth Hepple deliver a cross which landed at the feet of Pereira, she in turn laid the ball back for Chloe Macek, but her shot rose over the bar.
Moments later, Gears burst into the box and won a penalty, and she took what looked like an accidental kick to the head for her troubles, but Hepple saw her spot-kick brilliantly saved by Burgess.
This saw the start of an entertaining final half an hour of football, as the Golden Girls seemed lifted by the penalty save.
The game opened up and chances were coming at both ends of the park. Watford’s Tricia Gould forced Moorhouse into a save at one end, before Pereira created space for herself inside the box, but shot straight at the goalkeeper at the other, and then Watford came straight back at the Wildcats, Moorhouse tipping over Stacie Donnelly’s shot from the edge of the box.
But it was Durham who extended their lead further and it was Corrie with her second of the game, and it was a brilliant goal. She controlled the ball 25 yards out, flicked it onto her left foot, and hit a half volley up in the air. The ball looped up high, for what seemed like an eternity, before dropping over Burgess and into the back of the net.
Gould turned her marker and blazed over, as Watford looked to salvage something from the final 15 minutes of the game, but it was former Golden Girl Sasha Adamson, making only her second appearance and her first at home, who made sure of the game minutes after replacing debutant Erika Warren, as she got on the end of a low Chloe Macek cross and scored with her second touch.
Watford had a few attempts towards the end of the game, substitute Emily Heaslip’s shot was parried, then gathered in by Moorhouse, before the goalkeeper saved twice from Nuttall just before full-time.