Head coach Damon Lathrope felt there were “lots of positives and lots to work on” after Watford Women started their new season with a 3-2 victory over Gillingham at their new Grosvenor Vale home.

Following their relegation from the last season, the Golden Girls are looking to bounce back at the first time of asking in the National League Southern Premier Division and they got off to the ideal start when captain Helen Ward put the hosts in front.

The Gills responded by taking the lead, but goals from Bianca Baptiste and Andria Georgiou secured the points for the hosts in their first game at Wealdstone's ground.

“The first one always feels more important than the rest,” Lathrope told the club website. “You go in off of a clean slate, with no league standings for the first game of the season, and you could see that in the first half.

“We know Gillingham aren’t a bad side, we knew they would be high energy and hard to beat, but we’ve said to the group throughout pre-season that we’ll grind teams down, and we expect that the longer the game goes on the stronger we’ll become.

“I would have liked it to have been wrapped up a little earlier than it was, but overall we’ll take that, with lots of positives and lots to work on.”

Although they had five debutants in the starting XI, Watford soon settled and had chances before Ward put them in front when she lifted the ball over keeper Cara Davies in superb style.

However, the Gills were quickly back on terms through Georgia Griffin and took the lead with a Maddie Farrand long-range strike just before half-time, but the Golden Girls went in level at the break thanks to Baptiste’s first for the club.

The Hornets stepped up a gear in the second half and after Annie Rossiter and Poppy Wilson had gone close, Georgiou scored with a thumping header from a corner to net what proved to be the winner.

“There were 330 in here for the first game of the season on a nice hot day, and now we want them to come back,” Lathrope said. “It’s a 3-2 game with lots of opportunities, so I’d like to think they’ve gone home happy.

“We want to be an exciting team with lots of the ball, and I think we showed that today and got what we deserved.”

Watford will be aiming to make it two wins from two on Sunday when they visit Bridgwater United.