Bolton Wanderers Women put nine past St Helens at The Ginge Power Stadium on Sunday to make it five wins from five, with Abbie Brown scoring four. Tom Cunniff’s side now sit top of the table with the best goal difference in the division and they travel to FC United of Manchester on Sunday.
Five games, five wins and a goal difference that has gone from third best in the league to first in a single afternoon. Whatever measure you pick, Bolton Wanderers Women are setting the pace and Sunday was the most emphatic afternoon of the lot.
Abbie Brown scored four. Lizzy Hamer-Brown added two, Molly Wood converted from the penalty spot for her first goal for the club, Naomi Lawrence came off the bench to score and a St Helens defender turned the ball into her own net. Nine goals, five different contributors and a clean sheet that survived until the final whistle.
Cunniff was pleased and also careful about what the scoreline does and does not prove.
"It was a really strong performance," he said. "It was top against bottom, so we were confident going into it, but the scoreline does not tell you the whole story about the gap between the two teams. What it does show is that we have got goals right through the team, because we had a few different scorers again."
Ask the head coach about lopsided results and he will explain the shape of the league rather than dress it up.
"There are 12 teams in this division and ten of them are near enough level with each other," Cunniff said. "Then you get one or two who have come up from tier six and that is a big jump. We just need to get out of this league and then you will not have games like that."
Sunday was only Brown’s second start of the season and she used it.
"She has played for some really good teams in the past, including overseas, and she was with us last season," Cunniff said. "I think she went out there to prove a bit of a point, and I love that.
"People take their opportunities. It shows the amazing depth we have got, that we have players like that who are not starting every week. For me it is brilliant to see that when we change it, the level of performance does not drop."
Hamer-Brown came back into the side and scored twice. Lawrence came off the bench and scored again, her third of the campaign so far. Wood, meanwhile, ended a wait that had gone on longer than anybody expected, stepping up from the spot for her first Wanderers goal and burying it.
It is the spread that pleases Cunniff most. Five games in, the goals have come from forwards, from midfield, from a centre back and from a full back.
Wanderers led 3-0 at the break, and the half-time message was not about adding to the collection for its own sake.
"We were happy enough at 3-0," Cunniff said. "What we said at half time was that the main objective for the second half was the clean sheet, but also good expression and getting more goals, because goal difference matters. Before Sunday we had the third-best goal difference in the league and now we have the best. That could be key later in the season."
Keeping a back four switched on at 9-0 is its own coaching problem and one this group takes seriously.
"The defence care very deeply about the clean sheets," Cunniff said.
Every conversation with Cunniff this season comes back to the same place. Five games in, the team has changed for every one of them and nobody has been left in any doubt about why.
"Everyone we have signed, and everyone who has been here for the last year, knew what this season was about," he said. "There will be rotation at the right times. It is a squad effort.
"Everyone gets on so well and everyone is happy for each other. Nobody’s door is shut."
Team selection is getting harder rather than easier, which is precisely the point.
"Very difficult," he said. "But it is a good difficult."
There is more football coming than the league table suggests, too.
"The competitions have not even started yet," Cunniff said. "The FA Cup is two weeks on Sunday, the league cup is the week after, and then there is another cup in January. As long as we keep winning there are going to be loads and loads of games this season, so we need everyone at it."
Sunday: FC United of Manchester away
This weekend was originally a free one and the change of plan suits the head coach.
"We talked about complacency before the game," he said. "Originally we had this weekend off, so we kept aiming at that. Do not get complacent going into the break. Now we have a game instead, and I think that is a good thing, because it carries the momentum on."
FC United arrive at the fixture with a record that gives away very little.
"They have had a really mixed start," Cunniff said. "They drew away at Unity, which is an amazing result and then they have had results go against them. Honestly, we do not know what to expect.
"We know some of their players, so we know what is coming from some of them. But we will concentrate on ourselves, go there and try to outplay them, the same as we try to do against every team we play."