England Women’s Premier Division Round 5: Unbeaten Durham Go to Wimbledon, Surbiton Visit Hampstead

Four rounds in, the Women’s Premier Division has two perfect records and one very loud attack. Round 5 on Saturday puts all of it on the same afternoon.

Wimbledon v Durham is the game of the round

Durham University have won four from four, and they aren’t doing it quietly — Saturday’s 5-0 at Buckingham had a goal inside the first minute. Wimbledon at home are a different test, though. Wimbledon beat Bowdon 3-2 last week with three different scorers, and a win here would say plenty about both sides. If Durham come through this one unbeaten, the students stop being a nice story and start being title talk.

Surbiton’s numbers visit Hampstead

Surbiton have scored 27 goals in four matches and conceded two. The 9-0 against East Grinstead last Saturday, with an Amy Costello hat-trick, was the extreme version, but the extreme version keeps happening.

Hampstead & Westminster get the job of stopping them, four days after losing a wild 5-3 game at Loughborough. H&W can score. Everyone can see that. The question is whether any defence in this league can hold Surbiton under three, and nobody’s managed it yet.

The rest of Saturday

East Grinstead, still stinging from that nine, host Reading, who beat Birmingham 3-2 last week and are building something steady. Loughborough Students, fresh from the eight-goal game of the season, are at home to the University of Birmingham. Buckingham host the University of Nottingham, who picked up their first point in a 0-0 with Teddington and would love a first win more. And Teddington themselves are at Bowdon, both sides looking at the bottom of the table and needing points before it starts to matter.

For our money, Saturday is about the top. Durham’s run either survives its hardest away day yet, or Wimbledon’s season properly starts. Either way we learn something real. Every league we track sits on the Leagues page, and live scores land in the Live Centre.

Saturday 24 October fixtures: Buckingham v University of Nottingham; East Grinstead v Reading; Wimbledon v Durham University; Hampstead & Westminster v Surbiton; Loughborough Students v University of Birmingham; Teddington v Bowdon.