MERLEY Cobham Sports Ladies climbed to second spot in the Dorset Women’s League after an impressive 3-2 victory over table-toppers Dorchester on Sunday.

Goals from Liv Knott, Georgia Nicholson and Kez Old ensured Cobham reduced to 11 points the gap on the league leaders, with two games in hand.

And manager George Smith was delighted to see his side inflict Dorchester’s first loss of the campaign.

He said: “I’m very proud of the ladies, especially to play great football and to go on and win the game against previously unbeaten, top of the league Dorchester.

“The ladies played an intense game of football and commanded the game, probably the best football we’ve played as a team so far.

“Tactically they performed everything I set them up to do, we had worked on winning the ball high up and that’s exactly what happened in the game.

“It allowed us to exploit the space behind their defensive line as we broke through with some brilliant passes and allowed the pace and skill from our front three to create lots of scoring opportunities, in which three of them paid off.”

Cobham have picked up 25 points from their 13 league games this season, with eight victories.