FULHAM'S former Southampton Saint Una Nwajei (pictured above) struck the first blow against her old club as the Londoners stayed top of the FA Women's Premier League National Division with a 5-0 victory.

But it was far from a poor performance from the south coast strugglers who got over their first-half mauling to dominate for long spells after the break.

Nwajei, who left the Saints during the summer to play for Mohamed Al Fayed's trailblazing professionals, took advantage of a defensive mix-up to open the scoring after 19 minutes and the two goals that followed were a tragedy for Saints' England under-19 goalkeeper Toni-Ann Wayne.

On both occasions she punched the ball into her own net from corners, although only the second was given as an own goal - the first being attributed to Fulham's Katrine Petersen.

It was from yet another corner that Rachel Unitt added Fulham's fourth, but Saints' youngsters improved dramatically after the break and didn't concede again until Peterson grabbed her second of the game in the dying seconds.

Southampton coach Steve Stone was brimming with pride after the performance. His ever-shrinking squad was lightened yet again last week when budding England under-19 star Shelly Cox joined Leeds United, but those left behind responded with a battling team performance and - set pieces apart - defended really well.

Stone said: "Defensively we worked on a system of play and I can't praise them highly enough for the way they executed it against strong, international players like Fulham's. If we can carry on playing like that, no way will we be relegated. The one thing I would say is that we still need a striker. Our approach play was good in the second half, but our girls up front were not in the same class as theirs."

Everton are just two points clear of the second-from-bottom Saints having played four games more than the girls from St Mary's.

The Merseysiders were thrashed 5-1 at home by rejuvenated Birmingham yesterday and disappointed coach Keith Marley admitted: "We were absolutely played off the park. We had certain players who didn't want to play and they let the club down."

Cox's debut for Leeds ended in the disappointment of a 2-1 defeat at Tranmere, dropping them to fourth from bottom, while table-propping Brighton & Hove Albion were thumped 5-1 by title-chasing Charlton.