London Bees battled passed a resilient Hamlet aside on Sunday afternoon with a professional showing at Champion Hill as they maintained their impressive start to the FAWNL season. 

The Hamlet were almost instantly put on the back foot in the October sunshine on Sunday afternoon as they failed to deal with a corner gifting the visitors 1-0 lead after just 3 minutes. A towering header at the back post met a looped corner and gave them the advantage. 

Minutes later the Bees would be gifted a chance to double their lead. Elsie Grant was deemed to have dragged a player to the floor in the penatly area and the referee awarded a spot-kick. 

The penalty was calmly dispatched into the bottom corner despite the best efforts of Zahra Cheeseman in goal. 

The Hamlet reacted well as Minnie Cruttwell almost lobbed the keeper from the edge of the box with an audacious volley. 

Moments later and Jess Francis Weir made a driving run to the bi-line before drilling a cross across goal but it evaded everyone in the penalty area! 

With 25 minutes gone Lucy Monkman would have our best chance of the 1st half as she broke through on goal only for her shot to be parried away by the keeper. 

Erin Corrigan forced the keeper into a save with a trademark free-kick. Her shot from the edge of the 18 yard-box almost headed into the top corner only for the visitors keeper to tip it over the bar. 

As we approached the end of the 1st half Asia Harbour Brown would fire the Hamlet back into the match. She made an impressive run forward and played the ball into Kendra Brown.

She played it into Jess Francis Weir who found a marauding Harbour Brown in on goal who calmly dispatched her shot passed the keeper and into the back of the net. 

Francis Weir would almost have us level just before the break. As she won the ball 30 yards out and unleashed a shot only for it to go narrowly wide. 

The 2nd half was a much quieter encounter and took 30 minutes until we had a major chance on goal. Lauren Heria sent a looping cross into the box that found the head of Kendra Brown but her header was cleared off the line. 

With 8 minutes to go the Bees would wrap the game up with a quicker counter attack from a Hamlet corner. A long range strike caught Cheeseman off of her line and the ball headed into an empty net. 

That would secure the win for the Bees pushing them into 3rd in the table 5 points of league leaders Fulham. The Hamlet still sit 5 clear of the drop zone as they head into a fortnight of cup fixtures against Chatham Town in the League Cup and Swindon Town in the Adobe Women's FA Cup 1st round. 

SUNDAY AT CHAMPION HILL: 

We host Chatham Town this Sunday in the 1st knock-out stage of the FAWNL League Cup. Season tickets ARE valid. Match tickets can be purchased here.