BRADFORD City Women eased to success for the first time this season, thrashing Farsley Celtic 4-1 in the West Riding FA Cup.

After a frustrating start to the 2018/19 campaign, and eight defeats in a row, the Bantams finally got a taste of victory, as Toni Butcher and Meg Lawson watched over their first game in charge.

Visitors City looked the most likely of the two sides to break the deadlock and it did not take long for them to make the early pressure count, as Shirley Murphy opened the scoring in superb fashion.

Clever footwork down the left allowed her to audaciously strike an effort from 25 yards into the top right-hand corner in the sixth minute.

The Bantams showed no signs of slowing down and doubled their lead in the 19th minute with an almost identical finish to the first goal, as Murphy beat the keeper with another long-range effort.

Murphy secured the match ball just after the half-hour mark. A short corner from Jess Dunlop was eventually cleared into her path and she drilled the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.

City quadrupled the advantage to put the tie to bed just before the hour. Another strike from distance, from Dunlop, found the net to compound Farsley’s misery.

In the dying stages, Farsley replied with a consolation goal to deny the Bantams their first clean sheet of the season.

A long ball forward raised questions of offside, but the linesman’s flag stayed down for Laura Porritt to poke home from close range.

First team coach Butcher showed how impressed she was with her side’s 4-1 victory, saying: "Today’s performance is something they should be proud of as it showed organisation and intelligent football in places.

“Leaving the changing rooms today there was a certain amount of buzz after our first win.”

Fellow first team coach Lawson felt the young City side got everything they deserved from their performance.

She explained: "The attitude and application was top class. It was a confident display and exactly what the players deserved. It was nice to see 10 teenagers in the squad too.”