HTAFC Women have kicked-off their season beating Boldmere St Michaels away from home
- Bolmere St Michaels 1-7 Huddersfield Town Women
- Kate Mallin and Laura Elford with a hat-trick each
- HTAFC Women face Wolverhampton Wanderers at home next
Huddersfield Town Women travelled to Boldmere St Michaels and came away with a 7-1 win to kick off their 2022/23 campaign.
Playing in their new pink away kit carrying the sponsorship logos of BK8, MatchWornShirt, Calderdale College and Grappolo Italian Ristorante and, with Lauren Griffiths as the new skipper, Town started the game on the 3G surface with confidence and gained a corner with only 3 minutes gone. Kate Mallin struck the ball into the area and, it somehow ended up in the back of the Boldmere net with Mallin claiming her first of the season.
More was to come from Town as they thwarted the odd attack from Boldmere. Town continued to press and Brittany Sanderson was very unlucky not to double Town’s lead in the 19th minute when her header was well saved by Boldmere’s player of the match Chloe Quinn.
Town didn’t have to wait long for their second goal as in the 22nd minute Laura Elford was put through on goal and struck a cool left foot finish beyond the keeper.
In the 38th minute Beth Ibbotson was booked for what seemed like an innocuous challenge.
On the stroke of half time Mallin was set free by Elford and she struck her second to give Town a comfortable 3-0 half time lead.
Boldmere started the second half with more bite and got their reward in the 51st minute when they caused confusion in Town’s defence following a free kick, 1-3.
Four minutes later and Beth Ibbotson received her second yellow after fouling the Boldmere striker; leaving Town to play out the remaining 35 minutes with only 10 players.
Town upped their game once more and Mallin got her hat trick on the hour mark with a nicely struck shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Elford made it 1-5 in the 68th minute with a powerful finish.
Sanderson got herself onto the score sheet in the 83rd minute with her usual calmness in front of goal and Elford got her hat trick and completed the scoring in the 88th minute.
In the end a relatively easy start to the season for Town which also saw competitive debuts for Lauren Joyce, Katie Anderson, Imogen Porteous Williams and Hannah Langford.
Manager Glen Preston commented that he was very pleased with the overall performance.
He stated that the work ethic of the team was very strong but that next Sunday’s game at home to Wolves would be a much sterner test, adding that the team would have to raise their game again to get something out of it.
