Arsenal Ladies 5
Leeds United 0
Women's FA Cup final

Arsenal Ladies completed an impressive league and cup double on bank holiday Monday with an overwhelming 5-0 victory over Leeds United at The Den.

In front of a record crowd of 13,452 the second highest for a Women's FA cup final and BBC cameras, Arsenal underlined their superiority with a scintillating display of attacking football that could have yielded more goals.

Arsenal, who play their home matches at Meadow Park, Borehamwood, took an early lead in the third minute when Leeds defender Lucy Ward headed a Rachel Yankey cross past her own keeper.

The Gunners piled on the pressure and Yankey could have doubled the lead in the tenth minute when the England star cut in from the left and hit a powerful shot against the post.

Julie Fleeting got on the end of a Jayne Ludlow cross but her header drifted over the bar. But the Scotland international made no mistake ten minutes before the break when Lianne Sanderson raced clear of the Leeds defence and found Fleeting in space who had time to drill her shot into the bottom corner.

Within a minute of the restart Rachel Yankey struck a curling free-kick from the right hand touchline which found its way into the back of the net to give Arsenal a 3-0 lead going into half-time.

The Arsenal onslaught continued into the second half and Fleeting had further efforts on target but was denied another goal.

Kelly Smith almost added her name to the scoresheet after good work by Yankey and Sanderson but fired her shot against the post.

When Yankey was brought down just inside the Leeds penalty area Smith stepped up and converted the resulting spot-kick.

A few minutes later Sanderson got the goal she deserved when she went past Jess Clarke and slid the ball under the advancing keeper to make it 5-0.

The final whistle sparkedjubilant scenes from the Arsenal players who completed their third double in six years.

ARSENAL LADIES: Byrne, Champ, White, Asante, Phillip (McArthur 76) Ludlow, (Grant 72) Scott (Daniels 82) Yankey, Smith, Sanderson, Fleeting, Subs not used: Pealling Davison