AFC Bournemouth Women played their maiden game at Vitality Stadium last night, with Chelsea Development the visitors.

The friendly fixture, which ended 6-1 to the Blues, came after the Cherries won the Southern Region Women’s Football League with an emphatic 12-1 victory on Sunday.

AFC Bournemouth had 21 players given the opportunity to step out onto the pitch, with over 800 spectators in attendance.

Chelsea got off to a lightening start, with Nicole Douglas netting a first-half hat-trick for the visitors, who had set out a strong side to face the Cherries.

The Blues soon got a fourth, before Steve Davies’ side began to apply pressure on their opponent’s defence.

The Cherries won their third corner of the half ahead of the interval, which Chloe Tape went over to take.

The eventual ball in was met with a bullet header from captain Sian Tilly, who scored the Women’s first ever goal at Vitality Stadium.

The Cherries continued to push forward, with Emma Davis a constant threat from the right and Tape doing well to test the Chelsea defence.

Nevertheless, the Blues struck again before the interval to make the score stand at 5-1.

As the second half got underway, the Cherries continued to work hard, but couldn’t prevent Chelsea from adding a sixth through Douglas before the clock ran down.

Despite the defeat, Davies spoke with pride about his side playing at Vitality Stadium.

“It was a great experience for us all,” he said.

“To play in front of over 800 supporters was fantastic and the players worked their socks off against a strong Chelsea side.”

Head of Community Steve Cuss added: “We were delighted with the attendance on the evening and the opportunity to showcase the girls’ and women’s programme with the game at Vitality Stadium.

 “All the youth teams were involved in the evening with coaching sessions, penalties and the half-time relay.”

The Women have one game of the season remaining, a League Cup final against Chesham United which takes place this Sunday.