Walsh stars in Sky Blues first win

Westfield Matilda striker Sarah Walsh has starred for Sky Blue FC in a 2-0 win over Chicago Red Stars in the Women’s Professional League in the USA.

Westfield Matilda striker Sarah Walsh has starred for Sky Blue FC in a 2-0 win over Chicago Red Stars in the Women-s Professional League in the USA.

Walsh opened the scoring for Sky Blue to set up the much needed win for the New York-based side, their first win of the season against a sluggish Chicago side that was minus Walsh-s Matildas teammate Heather Garriock.

Walsh benefitted from a superb pass by fellow Australian Collette McCallum in behind the defence and Walsh made no mistake slipping the ball past Chicago-s Swedish keeper Caroline Jonsson.

The Matildas striker was replaced after 65 minutes and the Sky Blue-s wrapped up the match in the 78th minute, when Natasha Kai scored. McCallum played a full game.

Walsh said after the match how relieved she was the team finally got a win after five games.

“Collette McCallum and I know each other-s game inside and out so the ball through was perfect,” Walsh explained. “We-ve had three or four games without a goal, so it was just a huge relief to get a goal and to be up. To be honest, I was surprised we were up.”

“I-ve never been so relieved, to have my club win a game. We worked hard for it and we deserved it.”

Garriock is set to miss a few more weeks after picking up a knee injury, while fellow Matilda Lydia Williams has to settle for a place on the bench as behind Jonsson-s understudy.

Lisa De Vanna and her Washington Freedom teammates had a bye on the weekend.

Meanwhile Kate Gill set up the opening goal for Carina Holmberg, as Sunnana SK recorded a big 4-0 win over Stattena IF in the Swedish Women-s League.

Gill-s pass four minutes after half time, created the chance for Holmberg and she made no mistake and that was followed by a Linda Fransson hat-trick as Sunnana ran riot.

Gill played a full game and is a regular starter in the side, with Sunnana now going on a four-game unbeaten run, which has included three wins.