Town Women beat Loughborough Lightning in the League
- Loughborough Lightning 0-2 Huddersfield Town Women
- Beth Ibbotson and Kate Malin get their names on the scoresheet
- Glen Preston’s side next face Doncaster Belles in the FA Cup
Town Women faced a second visit to Loughborough in as many weeks as Beth Ibbotson and Kate Mallin fired them to a valuable three points!
The game picked up from last week’s fixture with Town Women controlling matters, with the first major chance coming after eight minutes as Laura Elford played through Britt Sanderson only for her shot to be parried away by the Lightning 'keeper.
It would be Elford herself with the next chance minutes later when a corner fell into the path of the striker who's volley was destined for the back of the net only, to be blocked and headed out for another corner.
As the weather took a turn Lauren Joyce was called into action after 25 minutes, with a long-range effort taking a deflection but falling nicely into her hands.
That however would be the most Lightning threatened in the first half and minutes later the hosts found themselves a goal down.
Another dangerous corner was cleared out to captain Lauren Griffiths, with her cross picking out the head of towering central defender Beth Ibbotson who hammered her header into the back of the net to put Town Women ahead.
The final chance of the first half fell to Sanderson again. A driving run from Elford allowed her to play the ball to Sanderson, who’s strike from range hit the crossbar and fell into the keeper’s arms.
Town picked up the second half where they had left the first and could have found themselves two goals up after 47 minutes.
A cross in from Mallin found the free head of Elford who’s effort was acrobatically saved by the keeper. It would be Mallin herself taking the limelight five minutes later as she doubled Towns lead.
Lightning again failed to deal with a corner, with the ball falling into the path of Mallin who’s strike from distance found the back of the net to fire Town into a comfortable lead.
Sanderson again had a chance to add to her goal tally for the season, with another driving run forward seeing her carry the ball around a couple of players only for her shot to be saved easily by the Lightning keeper.
As the weather took a turn for the better, Lightning themselves had a chance to get back into the game through a quick counterattack which allowed Middleton to break through, but her shot was saved well by Joyce in the Town goal.
Mallin had chance to double her tally for the afternoon with 10 minutes left to go but her shot went high over the bar before she had another chance five minutes later, this time seeing her shot flash agonisingly close by at the near post.
Town picked up their second win in two weeks against Lightning after their encounter in the Cup ladt time out, adding to that victory by picking up an all-important three points in the league.
Next for the Town Women is the FA Cup and an away tie against Doncaster Belles on Sunday 13 November.
