Watford Ladies made it two pre-season wins on the spin with an emphatic 7-0 trouncing of Maidenhead United last night at Gaywood Park.

The tier four side were no match for the Golden Girls’ ruthless attacking play as braces from captain Helen Ward and Leanne Bell, and strikes courtesy of Alysha Stojko-Down, Laura Baker and Anaisa Harney rounded off a superb victory.

Sporting a young side for the visit of the Berkshire outfit, Watford would have been full of confidence after registering their opening pre-season success on Sunday.

And that translated here into an irrepressible first-half showing as the home side raced into a 5-0 lead.

Stojko-Down, one of Armand Kavaja’s new recruits, buried her first goal for the club after just 10 minutes.

The midfielder confidently collected the ball in a central position and unleashed a fizzing effort to give her side the perfect start.

They quickly doubled the advantage as Wales international Ward showed all her class and experience to latch onto a ball in behind and round the United keeper to score.

Watford were relentless by this stage with Baker getting in on the act to fire in goal number three, driving at the defence and coolly tucking the ball into the corner of the net.

By now it was damage limitation for Maidenhead but they could not deal with the pace and numbers within the hosts’ ranks.

Ward doubled up for the evening, and made it four for pre-season, as the 32-year-old fired a low effort with deadly precision to open up a four-goal cushion.

Maidenhead were clearly rattled and were soon architects of their own downfall on the stroke of half-time as the alert Bell latched onto a stray pass to finish well.

As is customary during pre-season, Kavaja rang the changes at the break and introduced some of the Hornets’ talented Under-23s, including Kayleigh Currivan and Charlotte Bolland.

However that showed little sign of disrupting their rhythm and tempo with a sixth goal for Watford arriving just 10 minutes after the restart.

The final two goals arrived thanks to the creativity and vision of Ward, as she turned provider to first find Bell who planted a header beyond a helpless Maidenhead goalkeeper, before Harney rounded off the scoring with a composed finish.