WORCESTER Women's firsts beat Northampton Saints 2-0 in their first Midlands Prem-ier League match of the New Year.

The hosts began defensively, but managed to cope well with Northampton's series of attacks.

Worcester battled hard to get the ball into the oppositions' half and after 20 minutes captain Cath McComb drove from midfield to set up Elaine Shepperd in the circle for a deft reverse stick shot which crept into the corner of the goal.

The second-half saw Wor-cester take control and Amy Rowland had two good cha-nces well saved.

In the final minute a Worcester penalty corner was hit home by Shepperd.

The seconds crashed to a 5-2 home defeat to Warwick University.

The game started slowly and the visitors capitalised on this and took the lead early on. Gradually Worcester worked together and reduced the spa-ce of play and only let in one more goal.

After that the seconds had a good period of play and scored through Lucy Senior. Then, just before the final whistle of the first-half, Claire Hayes levelled the scores.

However, after the break, the University finally broke down the resilient hosts and went on to secure victory as the hosts' heads went down.