Gills Ladies slipped to their first defeat in three games on Sunday afternoon.

Despite Natalie Crinean pulling a goal back with her first strike of the season, four first half goals from Plymouth was enough to secure the three points for the home side.

Ultimately it was four goals in a nine minute first half spell that killed the game off for the Gills despite them dominated the majority of the match.

Despite the long journey it was the Gills who started the better and in particular Leah Jones who put a couple of great early crosses into the Plymouth area but nobody got on the end of them.

The Gills continued to press and had further half chances through Farmer and Crinean. Plymouth looked dangerous on the break but caused very few problems.

However, in the 25th minute Plymouth took the lead, a poor defensive header was pounced upon before being played through for the Plymouth winger to fire home. Within a minute Gills should have equalised as Natalie Crinean went one on one with the keeper but she failed to finish it. Two minutes later it was 2-0, a simple corner wasn’t dealt with and the Plymouth captain fired home.

Within a couple of minutes it was 3-0, a cross in from the right found the unmarked striker to head home. In the 34th minute unbelievably it was 4-0 again a cross from the right found the Plymouth striker unmarked, her header hit the crossbar but she followed up to tap home.

In the second half it was one way traffic and in truth the Gills should have scored seven or eight goals. In total seven one on ones were missed along with a further 14 attempts on goal. Jones, Phillips and Crinean all missed good chances whilst there were some good attempts by Tune and Farmer.

Gills only goal came from Natalie Crinean who coolly rounded the keeper to slot home for her first goal of the season. Gills day was complete when a last minute Danni Farmer penalty hit the post and Lauren Phillips couldn’t put home the rebound.

Despite the result the second half was probably the best performance of the season for the Ladies but they just were not clinical enough.

Full Time 4-1

Gills: Quantrill, Williams, Carlton (Taylor 20), S Jones, Cheedy, East (Smith 72) Tune, L Jones, Farmer, Crinean, Phillips