By Jeff Burnige at St Paul’s
The returning Shannan Drewe scored a hat-trick as Millwall Lionesses maintained their two-point lead at the top of the London & South East Regional Women’s Football League with a comfortable 6-0 victory over Gatwick-based AFC Acorns last weekend.
After the previous weekend’s disappointing loss to rivals Fulham, the task for manager Jack Wheeler was to ensure that the Lionesses started another unbeaten run in the league, and they duly delivered.
Millwall have built a strong squad of nineteen, 20 players, and Wheeler decided on five changes to his starting line-up. One of these was new signing Shannan Drewe, returning to the club after leaving for National League football in 2020, and she struck an impressive hat-trick between the 39th and 69th minutes.
The scoring had been opened on 21 minutes when goal-scoring midfielder Maisie Joyce, recalled to the side, made it 1-0 and then hit the bar on 22 minutes and the post in the 29th minute.
Drewe’s first had made it 2-0, and that was the half-time score. The excellent Millie Connell hit Millwall’s third on 48 minutes, which opened the floodgates. Drewe’s second and third goals quickly followed.
Wheeler always uses his full bench, and two of the substitutes, midfielders Grace Seely and Millie Penfold, scored the final two goals to make it 6-0.
This was a great team effort, and finally buried the disappointment of the dramatic loss in the Women’s FA Cup against Gillingham two weeks ago.
There are now two more games before the Christmas break: Saltdean United at home and then a derby at Sutton United. The first priority is to maintain the two-point lead into the New Year, and then push on for promotion to the National League.