Sheffield United recorded their third straight victory to go top of the FA Women’s Championship with a 3-0 win at home to Watford.

As they did in their last two games, United came flying out of the blocks, going two up inside 10 minutes thanks to goals from in-form duo Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Lucy Watson.

After a swift break, Watson was the provider for Sweetman-Kirk to slot home from close range, before a similar method of attack three minutes later saw Jess Clarke slide a low ball across for Watson to knock home a second.

Watford had it all to do but went about their task admirably, but didn’t really overly test Fran Kitching in the United goal with an array of efforts from long distance.

After a fast start, the game settled down and neither side had any clear chances.

This was until Watson put the seal on things for the Blades, four minutes into the second half, with a powerful low effort into the far corner.

With the game all but over as a contest, it became a stop-start affair, with a couple of lengthy injury stoppages.

However, Sweetman-Kirk did come close to a fourth, while Sophie Walton cleared an effort off the line to stop the visitors pulling one back.

Kitching also pulled off an instinctive close-range save late on, before a heavy touch from Watson denied her a chance of a hat-trick deep into stoppage time.

After the match Hornets' skipper Helen Ward said: “We’ve been undone by five or ten minutes at the start of either half, and that’s the disappointing thing for me.

“I actually think we had some good possession, particularly in the first half, and we’ve not made the most of it.

“I don’t think we’re using the ball well enough when we have it.

“I think today is a missed opportunity, we know they’re a very, very good side and finished high up the table last year, but we can’t keep making excuses, we can’t keep saying the next one.

“I think we had one or two chances before they scored and it was out of nothing on the counter. It’s disappointing, when you keep going a goal down it gets to you and then they scored again straight after, it’s tough to come from behind time and time again.

“We need to be tighter as a defensive unit, they need our support from front to back, we’re not being tough enough to break down, we’re conceding too many goals and we’re not doing enough as a unit to prevent that.”