Town Women win on the road
- Stoke City Women 1-2 Huddersfield Town Women
- Town make it two successive away wins in all competitions
- Brittany Sanderson and Paige Crossman on the scoresheet
Huddersfield Town Women made it two successive away wins in all competitions on Sunday afternoon, beating Stoke City 1-2.
Proceedings at Community Drive got under way with the opening period of the game proving to be a cagey, back and forth first 15 minutes resulting in little clear-cut chances. The game then ramped up in action as Stoke’s Delle had a one-on-one opportunity squandered by Bethan Davies.
The few chances that came in the opening half an hour of the game went Stoke City’s way, but then momentum then started to shift Town’s way in the form of some intricate play from Ria Montgomery and Laura Elford, which subsequently lacked the final touch.
The flow of the game well and truly shifted in Huddersfield’s favour in the 33rd minute, as Brittany Sanderson chested down a 40-yard looping ball from Georgia Marshall and shot across her body to slot the ball home for the opening goal.
A great chance to double the lead cropped up very soon after the opener in the form of Laura Elford as she rounded the Stoke ‘keeper, but was let down by a wayward touch.
Just on the stroke of half-time, Town Captain Katie Stanley had a subsequent header from an out swinging cross guided over the bar, due to the Stoke stopper Liz Craven doing a great job at covering her angles.
The second half got off to a lively start for Terriers as a corner for Town was put into a dangerous area, but bounced around the penalty area and eventually petered through to the ‘keeper.
The wind started to work Town’s favour as the clock showed an hour played, as a looping chance from 40 yards out troubled Stoke’s goal due to the conditions.
Marshall then looked to exploit the conditions shortly after through a long throw, which ended up reaching the penalty spot. Unfortunately, Kate Mallin’s snapshot was met by the ‘keeper.
Coming up to the 70th minute mark, Town’s right flank had some intricate play through Serena Fletcher and Montgomery who drilled a low cross in to Stanley who unluckily couldn’t take advantage of their controlled play.
The Reds were handed a penalty in the 77th minute, which was slotted into the bottom right corner by Barber.
Only five minutes later Paige Crossman’s looping effort troubled the Stoke goal and subsequently ended up in the back of the net as Town deservedly regained the lead.
The last ten minutes returned to being quite a cagey affair until Town eventually held on for a justified three points!
Town Women’s Manager Glen Preston described the game as “a hard-fought victory against a very well organised side off the ball.”
He continued:
“The conditions played their part for both sides.
“In the first half Stoke used the wind to good effect to try and keep us pinned in the corners, and we had to play well to break through their pressure and get on top of the game, which I feel like we did by the end of the first half.
“In the second half we had the wind and I thought we took complete control of the game.
“Football can be a strange game at times, we missed 2-3 sitters from 5 yards out today, yet stuck one in from 30 yards to win the game.
“All in all, it’s a good, hard-fought win”.
Town Women’s Line-Up
Bethan Davies; Paige Crossman; Beth Ibbotson; Serena Fletcher (Autumn Housley, 74’); Georgia Marshall; Lauren Griffiths; Katie Stanley (Mia Parry, 74’); Brittany Sanderson; Ria Montgomery, Laura Elford, Kate Mallin (Vicky Abbott, 87’)
Photo by Jess Hornby
