For­wards Katie Wilkin­son and Sophia Pharoah both struck twice for the hosts on an after­noon where Saints kept their pro­mo­tion hopes alive.

The Saints boss was pleased with the all-round nature of the thump­ing win — with her side cre­at­ing many chances while not let­ting up defen­sive­ly either.

Speak­ing to the Dai­ly Echo after the game, she said: “I’m absolute­ly delight­ed with the score­line. The five goals and the clean sheet are impor­tant at this point of the sea­son.

“We took our chances, but we also didn’t con­cede any, so I’m delight­ed with how we per­formed today. We’ve scored five goals, but we had a lot of chances and we have cre­at­ed a lot.

“Some­times you are just sit­ting on the side­line watch­ing some of the foot­ball and you are think­ing this is what we are all about. 

“I’m real­ly pleased with the per­for­mance, clean sheet, and obvi­ous­ly the five goals.”

Spacey-Cale insist­ed she is “proud” of how far her side has come and how much they have learned about per­form­ing equal­ly well in both halves.

She added: “That’s been part of our sea­son. We have been play­ing real­ly well for one half and not the oth­er.

“Today, a lot of the learn­ings and what we’ve picked up through­out the sea­son real­ly came togeth­er today.

“We’ve set a stan­dard now for the next four games. It’s impor­tant that we enjoy today. It was an out­stand­ing per­for­mance.

“I’m real­ly proud of what the girls have done but it also means we’re back on the train­ing pitch in the week to get ready for the next game.”

With pro­mo­tion rivals Sun­der­land, Crys­tal Palace, and Birm­ing­ham City all drop­ping points on Sun­day — Saints are now right back in the mix for pro­mo­tion to the Wom­en’s Super League.

They are just one point behind lead­ers Sun­der­land, while they are lev­el on points with Crys­tal Palace and Charl­ton Ath­let­ic.

The Saints boss insist­ed the Cham­pi­onship is “unpre­dictable” and her side needs to keep going if they are to achieve their ulti­mate goal.

She con­tin­ued: “The league is so unpre­dictable. Today’s result and today’s per­for­mance will cer­tain­ly give us a lot of pride and a lot of con­fi­dence.

“We have to use today to keep build­ing. We have to use that for next week. We’ve got goals in this team.

“Hope­ful­ly, we can take that con­fi­dence into next week­end. We’ll look for­ward to a tough week of train­ing and get­ting ready for the next game.”

Southamp­ton FC Women trav­el to Black­burn Rovers on Sun­day, March 24 in the first of four match­es remain­ing this sea­son.