Six-goal forward helps Guernsey women make history

Calleigh Hedley (right) celebrates one of her six goals for Guernsey with forward Chloe Ingrouille

Guernsey FC Women made history in style on their debut in the English football league system on Sunday.

Facing an occasion that would have been momentous even with a drab match, the Green Lionesses and visitors Wimborne Town shared six goals in either half, including a double hat-trick for Guernsey's Calleigh Hedley.

"It went amazingly," Hedley told BBC Guernsey after becoming the first female Guernsey player to score six times in one game in the 7-5 win.

"I was praying for a couple - I've been working for it this pre-season - but I never expected this many."

After Wimborne's early opener in front of almost 600 fans at the newly built Victoria Park, prolific former Southampton forward Hedley completed a nine-minute first-half treble for the first women's side from the Channel Islands to play in an English league match.

"For the first five or 10 minutes, understandably, everybody was a little bit nervous," head coach Anna Gauvin said.

"It was just a case of taking those 10 minutes and getting everyone focused.

"We knew [Hedley's] a really exciting player. She worked extremely hard off the ball as well. You see all the goals but she does work really hard for the team."

Candice Bougourd converted an 83rd-minute penalty kick to put Guernsey 7-3 ahead

Guernsey only conceded eight times across their invincible campaign in the Jersey Football Combination last season, but Wimborne twice reduced the deficit to one and hit the woodwork twice, with two of their goals arriving after the 89th minute.

"I'm not really keen on [conceding] those five goals," Gauvin said.

"It's something we'll work on, look back at and see what happened.

"We'll have the footage straight away so we'll just work with everybody about recovering those later goals. It's something we'll try to cut out.

"It shows that we can compete at this level. We're still not sure where we're at but it was a brilliant start.

"The players do so much work off the training pitch - extra coaching and fitness. I'm really pleased they want to do that.

"The coaching team behind me work so hard and really love it, want to be involved and help the girls. That's massively important for me."

The advancement to sixth tier the Southern Region Women's Football League Division One South is stage three of a three-year plan to elevate women's football on the island, the club said in July.

Captain Candice Bougourd joined Hedley on the scoresheet for a side who visit Bournemouth Sports Reserves on Sunday (14:00 BST).

"The team are getting closer and the chemistry's getting better," Hedley said. "We're loving playing with each other."