Town Women beat Nottingham Forest to move up to fourth
- Terriers win seventh successive game
- Laura Elford and Serena Fletcher on the scoresheet
- Comments from Coach Kamran Hussain
Huddersfield Town Women moved up to fourth place in the Northern Premier Division following a 2-1 victory over promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest.
It only took nine minutes for the Terriers to go ahead with Ria Montgomery utilising the open space on the wings to find Paige Crossman, who cut a low-driven cross into the legs of top scorer Laura Elford. The latter then fired the ball into the top left of the goal - hitting down off the bar and crashing into the backside of the left post.
The visitors started to find their way back into the game following the game’s opening goal, with a series of freekicks getting closer to Bethan Davies’ goal. Both teams exchanged strong sliding tackles as they both tried to take control of the first half, however, the hosts would strike gold when Serena Fletcher fired a long-range effort over the goalkeeper’s head to double town’s lead before the break.
The second half saw Forest holding more possession as they looked to claw back into the game and fight for their current nine game unbeaten streak. A number of clear chances went begging as Town’s back line stood firm and maintained their pressure. Town would have several attempts from dangerous looking counter-attacks, however, they failed to challenge Emily Batty in goal.
Nottingham did find the back of the net with the final kick of the game, scoring directly from a freekick from around 25 yards. The goal was scored to a chorus of complaints from Town due to not hearing a referee whistle thus not being ready for the kick, however this goal didn’t change the result as Town picked up all three points to overtake Nottingham Forest in the league table.
First Team Coach Kamran Hussain was pleased with his side’s performance.
“The emotions are very high, we don’t want to go too high on emotion or too low.
“It’s three points on the board, we knew how important the game was coming into this and the girls have performed fantastically.
“We are super proud and we need to keep our feet on the ground and look towards the next game.”
“We knew Forest were going to be a good footballing side, we knew what we were up against.
“We couldn’t have started it any better with Elford putting us ahead quickly.
“The main objective was the three points today.”
Town return to action on Sunday 23 January 2022 when they face Middlesbrough at the Stafflex Arena, HD8 0WA.
Picture by Richard Asquith
