Huddersfield Town Women jump to fourth in the League after win against Stoke City
- Huddersfield Town Women 4-3 Stoke City
- Town move to fourth in the FA Women’s National League North
- Glen Preston’s side will build on this as they enter the League Cup next weekend
Town Women returned to the FA Women’s National League action at the Stafflex Arena on Sunday afternoon and welcomed Staffordshire outfit Stoke City as they looked to return to winning ways after a disappointing 2-0 defeat in their last league outing at AFC Fylde.
A frantic first half nearly started in the perfect manor for Town as Laura Elford broke free straight from kick-off but as she closed on goal, Stoke City’s defense rallied and were able to do enough to put Elford off and put her shot wide.
A missed chance that’d come back to bite them as Stoke soon took the lead as a bouncing ball in the box from a Stoke corner isn’t dealt with and their able to poke the ball over the line and open the scoring.
Town hit back nearly straight away as they came forward and a crossed ball fell at the feet of Britt Sanderson, and she turned and fired home to draw us level.
Sanderson quickly got her second goal of the game as Katie Anderson sent a through ball her way and Sanderson made no mistake in-front of goal.
Moments later Stoke were able to get level once again as Town didn’t clear their lines.
A major turning point in the game just after the half hour, Elford was able to latch onto a high ball and tried to break free but got pulled down by Stoke City’s last line of defense; the referee heads straight for his back pocket and the visitors were down to ten men.
From the free-kick, Town regained their lead as Sanderson got her hat-trick in fine fashion, she whipped the ball over the wall and into the bottom left corner of the goal, leaving the Stoke ‘keeper stranded as she watched the ball fall into her net.
The second half started in controversial fashion as Town won a free kick on the edge of the box, which Sanderson took quickly and struck the ball over the wall and into the back of the net, protests were sounded from the whole Stoke side, but the goal stood.
Stoke got another goal back with 13 minutes to go but Town held on to collect all three points and jump ahead of Stoke in the league table into fourth position.
Another break in league action as we start our League Cup campaign when we travel to Loughborough Lightning next Sunday, 2pm kick off.
