Smith's delight as 'dominant' Chichester Ladies see off Cardiff

Molly Clark, recently nominated for the women's beach soccer player of the year award, netted a super bicycle kick to take City to a 1-0 triumph over Cardiff City at Oaklands Park.

The victory kept Chichester second in the table and just a point behind leaders Coventry United.

Manager Smith was full of praise for the performance put on by City.

He said: 'All over the pitch we were dominant and I'm really pleased for everybody. 

'We were ready, we were planned, we were organised and we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

'We tried something new with the formation and that came off.

'As a coaching staff, we've been working really hard to try different things.

'˜Now people are going to see how we play, and they are going to try to combat that. We've got a couple of tricks up our sleeve and this was one of them.'

Cardiff had a team full of Welsh internationals but survived an early scare, with a Clark free-kick grazing the crossbar.

Clark did have the ball in the back of the net soon after, only for her effort to be chalked off for offside.

Chichester did take the lead just before the break. Hollie Wride's header was blocked after great work from home debutant Nadine Bazan, but Clark followed up with an acrobatic finish.

Chi went in search of a second goal as Khassal fired straight at the goalkeeper and Clark forced a quick reaction stop.

Cardiff threatened rarely in the second half but twice goalkeeper Lauren Dolbear was on hand to keep the Welsh side at bay.

The hosts remained calm at the back and held on for another three points.

But manager Smith has warned his players not to get complacent as they enter what looks to be an easier run of fixtures.

He added: 'We've put ourselves in a fantastic position, what you don't want to do is come up against one of the teams that's in the bottom three and end up slipping up.'

Chichester play host to Gillingham on Sunday.