Hearts Women picked up another three points on home soil on Sunday afternoon as they defeated Aberdeen 3-0 at Oriam.
Eva Olid made two changes to the side that thrashed Hibernian last time out as Bayley Hutchison and Jackie Richards replaced Naomi Powell and Lauren Wade.
Following on from last week’s statement victory at Easter Road, there wouldn’t have been too many teams relishing a trip to Oriam, but in truth, it was a rather flat start from the Jambos, with the visitors having the games first opening on 10 minutes.
A long ball caused confusion in the backline and after Emily Kraft had knocked the ball past the onrushing Rachael Johnstone, she couldn’t put the ball into the empty net.
That early scare didn’t exactly fire Hearts into life either, but they were dominating possession, and the chances did start to arrive for the women in maroon.
After Georgia Timms had fired into the side-netting on 16 minutes, Lizzie Waldie headed wide following a flurry of corners.
As has been the case so often for Hearts in recent times, Waldie has been key to starting attacks, striding forward from defence and playing a longer, riskier pass and was the number 12 who started the Jambos’ best move of the half. She picked out Joely Andrews with a smart ball down the channel and she managed to flick a header into the path of Eilidh Shore, but her volley was well tipped over by Megan Sidey.
Shore clearly fancied a goal against her former club and she came close again just three minutes later, when meeting Lisa Robertson’s cross, but her header landed on the roof of the net to end a goalless first half.
Half-time: Hearts 0-0 Aberdeen
There was a double change from the Jambos at the interval with Lauren Wade and Sade Adamolekun introduced to provide some more creativity in the final third and it paid dividends as Andrews lashed home the opener eight minutes after the break.
It was nice link-up play down the left from Hearts and after a bit of pinball following blocked efforts from both Adamolekun and Wade, the ball fell to Andrews on the edge of the box, and she showed good technique to keep her effort down and fire it through the crowd of bodies and into the net.
The half-time team talk had shaken the Jambos into life, and it was 2-0 just two minutes later. A quick throw-in from Waldie sent Wade in behind and after her effort was saved by Sidey, Timms was on hand to fire home the rebound.
It was much more like it from Hearts in the second period and the points should’ve been sealed 15 minutes from time. Lovely play between Timms and Adamolekun saw the latter slide the ball in for Wade, but her effort was saved by the feet of Sidey.
The Jambos continued to search for more goals, but Sidey continued to keep the score down, the stopper denied Adamolekun a wonderful solo goal next, before Wade was flagged for offside when tapping home the rebound.
The third goal did eventually arrive, and it was a deserved one for Adamolekun, who had made a real impact since her half-time introduction. She took a great first touch to set herself from Jess Husband’s cross and fired low across goal to add a bit more gloss to the scoreline, seven minutes from the final whistle.
Hearts: Johnstone, Brownlie ©, Robertson, Forsyth (Jess Husband, 61), Shore, Timms, Waldie, Andrews (Jardine, 80), Hutchison (Wade, 46), E. Husband, Richards (Adamolekun, 46)
Subs: Parker-Smith, Ilijoski, Wade, Jardine, Greenwood, Adamolekun, J, Husband, Richards, Broadrick
Aberdeen: Sidey, Edwards, Noble, Gover, Stewart ©, Ogilvie, Finnie, Innes, Thomson, Kraft, Black
Subs: McCann, Bruce, Jameison, Miller, McEvoy, Maclean, Elder
