Words: Matt Dorman

Lauren Brown hit a hattrick as Palm Beach SC Women continued their unbeaten start to the season with an 8-0 win over SWQ Thunder Women on Saturday.

Sharks dominated from the outset at Clive Berghofer Stadium, recording a second straight win in their first away match of the season.

While Brown did the bulk of the damage, it was Emily Benton first on the scoresheet in the eleventh minute to open her season tally.

An own goal made it 2-0 in the 26th minute, followed seconds later by Deanna Thompson, who also scored in last week's upset win over The Gap Women.

Thunder still had hope of claiming something from the match at 3-0 down but those chances were slashed immediately after the restart when Benton and Thompson completed their braces inside the opening moments.

The final 40 minutes belonged to Brown as the former Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets W-League player proved her quality, adding three more to make it five for the season and a comprehensive victory for Gary French’s Sharks.

Speaking after the match, French praised his team’s all-round effort.

“I thought everything we work on – playing out from the back, supporting the nine – came together so overall I was really pleased with our performance,” French said.

Thunder technical director Joe Fenech believed the focus was on key objectives, not the final scoreline.

“Today we were concentrating on playing out from the back. That was our only objective for today,” Fenech said.

Listen to the full post-match interviews below.

SWQ Thunder Women 0
Palm Beach SC Women 8 (Emily BENTON 11’, 46’ Own Goal 26' Deanna THOMPSON 27’, 48’ Lauren BROWN 51’, 87’, 90’)