The hosts put in a com­mand­ing dis­play at St Mary’s against a strug­gling Read­ing side to move with­in a point of lead­ers Sun­der­land in the Cham­pi­onship.

Wilkin­son struck twice in the first half and also con­tributed two assists for Saints on an excel­lent after­noon for Marieanne Spacey-Cale’s side.

Speak­ing to club media, Wilkin­son claimed: “It was enjoy­able to play in. We had a lot of the ball and cre­at­ed a lot of chances.

“I think we spoke about it in the week want­i­ng to add a few more goals to my tal­ly and it was nice to get a cou­ple of assists as well. I enjoy doing that just as much.

“We did men­tion that I like a head­er so that was nice. I would have loved to have scored a hat trick but maybe on anoth­er day.”

Loves a head­er, our @katiewilko10 👏 pic.twitter.com/Yt2tAB8aL2

— Southamp­ton FC Women (@SaintsFCWomen) March 17, 2024

The 29 year old has now scored eight goals in the Cham­pi­onship this sea­son with only Crys­tal Palace’s Elise Hugh­es and Sheffield Unit­ed’s Iso­bel Good­win net­ting more.

She con­tin­ued: “I think it was just nice to get bod­ies high up the pitch. We had a lot of chances going for­ward and a few dif­fer­ent goalscor­ers so it’s always nice for every­one to chip in.

“It’s impor­tant to have games like that. We’ll take it into the next league game when we get in on Tues­day. We’ll try and take that momen­tum and see where we end up.”