Town Women return to action for first game of 2022
- Town Women vs Hull City Ladies preview
- Town on six-game winning streak
- Comments from Manager, Glen Preston
League action returns for Huddersfield Town Women as they travel to Hull City Ladies on Sunday 9 January 2022 for their first game of the New Year.
Unbeaten since Halloween 2021, the Terriers have enjoyed a six-game winning streak, with their focus mainly being on the FAWNL Cup competition and the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.
The last league game Town played was their fantastic 3-0 victory against AFC Fylde Glen Preston’s first game in charge back in November 2021. That victory saw Town rise to fourth in the table, however, they have since dropped a place due to other fixtures being played.
Meanwhile, winless Hull City Ladies come into this game bottom of the league table and are looking to find momentum as we enter the halfway point in the fixture calendar. The Tigers did taste victory back in November 2021 when they beat Blackburn Community Sports Club in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup, however, they were knocked out of the cup against fourth tier side Liverpool Feds two weeks later.
Despite their poor form, Town Women’s Manager Glen Preston believes Hull will provide a tight match.
“I have a lot of time for Adrian Costello [Hull’s Manager].
“I know him well - he’s a good coach who knows the game inside out, and whilst his project is very different to ours in the sense, he’s building a very young side with great potential for the long term.
“We are under no illusions that this will be a tough game.
“In fact, you only have to look back at the last time we played Hull away, we needed to come from behind to get a very narrow victory.
“I expect to play against a side who are fighting for their lives, organised and who will be looking to make the game as difficult as possible for us.”
Last season, Haworth Park proved to be the launch pad for Town’s season-long unbeaten streak under Jordan Wimpenny. Town took home all three points on a rainy Wednesday night when both teams faced each other in 2020, with the Terriers winning 2-1. Laura Elford scored a brace on her return from injury and would later become Town’s top scorer for the curtailed season.
Despite being at the Club for over two months, this will only be Preston’s second league game in charge of the Terriers. He looked ahead to what 2022 could look like for his team.
“We know we are hanging on by a thread to stay in the title race and so it’s going to be a tough ask for us to claw back a 6-9 points deficit in half a season - but we’ll never give on that dream.
“In the Vitality Women’s FA Cup, the goal against Everton will be to put in a performance Town fans can get behind and be proud of, and in other competitions we’ll be putting ourselves under pressure to try and win them.
“We’re under no illusions about how big a task that is especially where there are some great sides still in the FAWNL Cup, but every person at this club wants to win things and you can feel that hunger around the place, and so that’s the challenge we’ll set ourselves and see what happens.”
PLAYER TO WATCH
As top scorer currently this season, Brittany Sanderson will be looking to extend her season total of 13 goals. Scoring three goals in her previous three games also shows that she has momentum in front of goal, one of these securing her December’s ‘Goal of the Month’ award.
The hosts will be looking towards Ellie Tanser for their attacking threat with her currently being the Tigers’ top goal scorer this season with four goals.
HOW TO WATCH HTWFC
Kick off on Sunday 9 January is at 2pm at Haworth Park, Hull (HU6 7DY) with away supporters welcome and pay on the gate available.
Can’t make the game? As always, online coverage of the match will be available across all HTWFC channels including minute-by-minute updates on our Twitter - @HTAFCWomen - plus match build up on our Instagram. Highlights will also be released following the game for fans to catch up on the action.
