Chesterfield Women stay top after eight-goal demolition of Rotherham United

A hat-trick from Gina Camfield plus goals from Emmi Cook, Hannah Baker, Georgina Williams, Amy Pashley and Millie Standen secured all three points for Mike Noon's side as they coasted to a home victory.

The Spireites dominated the game from start to finish and should perhaps have won by an even bigger margin. Rotherham's defence played a very high line throughout the whole 90 minutes which the Spireites were able to exploit and take advantage of time and time again.

Manager Noon must have been wondering how his team were only 2-0 up at half-time. Camfield scored Chesterfield's first goal of the game in the 13th minute when she latched onto a defence-splitting through ball and confidently slotted past Rotherham's goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.

The Spireites doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time when Cook dribbled the ball from the right wing into the penalty area before placing a calm finish into the net.

Chesterfield should really have added more goals in between those two goals.

Williams had two golden opportunities where she was one on one with the keeper who did well to stand her ground and save both efforts.

Eleanor Abercrombie also had a big opportunity to score with a free header following a corner kick but her effort sailed over the cross bar.

The first 15 minutes of the second half was a much more competitive period of the match with Rotherham's defence starting to look more stable and assured.

However, from the hour mark onwards the Spireites stepped it up another gear and ended up running riot against a Rotherham side that began to tire quickly.

A quick breakaway in the 60th minute allowed Baker all the time in the world to march towards the penalty area on her own and she smashed the ball into the top corner to make it 3-0.

Six minutes later, Williams finally bagged a goal as she rounded the goalkeeper before slotting the ball into an empty net.

To Chesterfield's credit, they maintained their drive and intensity right to the end of the game and did a great job in boosting their goal difference as much as possible which could prove to be vital at the end of the season.

Camfield scored her second goal of the afternoon in the 71st minute with an excellent finish from inside the penalty area to make it 5-0 before a rocket of an effort from =Pashley made it 6-0 after 79 minutes.

The Spireites were ruthless in the final third right until the final whistle as they added two more goals in injury time.

The impressive Camfield secured her hat-trick with another very confident finish from close range to make it 7-0 before Standen's excellent solo run and finish made it 8-0 with the last kick of the game.

Noon's side are now unbeaten in their past seven league games and still sit top of the league ahead of Northampton Women on goal difference. although Northampton still have two games in hand.

Boss Noon said: “I thought the performance today was really good. To score eight goals is fantastic. On another day, we could have had a few more as we missed a few good chances.

"I thought we moved the ball around really well and were dominant in possession. Whenever we lost the ball, it was good to see that we were working hard to win the ball back and start a new phase of attack.

"It was a brilliant performance, the girls have done really well and scoring eight goals keeps us top of the league which is fantastic.

"We're still reliant on Northampton dropping a few more points. But if they do, and it does come down to goal difference, then we need to be right up there fighting.

"We need to get three points every week now until the end of the season. So we've got to do our job first and foremost. If we do that, and our goal difference is good, then we've got a chance. We've got to keep doing our basics right, keep winning games and the girls were a real credit today."

Chesterfield: Watson, Pashley, Abercrombie, Williams, Willson, Camfield, Cook, Baker, Mapley-Sims, Stokes, Fidler. Subs: Warren, Frances-Creaser, Murray, Standen, Marshall.