THE QMC ladies football team started their season in fine style on Wednesday with a comfortable 3-1 win over Southampton’s Itchen College.

The Lionesses success in the recent World Cup seems to have had a positive effect on women’s football.

This means that QMC have been able to enter a team in the Hampshire Colleges 11-a-side League for the first time.

A full squad of 16 players were available for the game and after a tightly contested first 20 minutes Allegra Tarantino-Hind opened the scoring with a fierce shot from the edge of the box. Itchen hit back shortly afterwards, but QMC went into the half-time break on top.

The domination continued after half-time and Georgia Tucker tucked home a rebound off the goalkeeper on the hour mark to make it 2-1.

The QMC defensive four were working really well together staying compact and repelling most of the opposition’s advances, Lauren McNally, who is more comfortable out on pitch, was doing a fantastic job in goal.

Paige Rogers scored a superb goal on 75 minutes dribbling past a number of defenders before shooting past the Itchen goalkeeper to complete a 3-1 victory, which delighted coach Sam Gunter.

The men’s first team did not have such a good day going down to Itchen 4-1. Despite a tough start, coach Chris Kirby saw visible signs of improvement.