Brighouse Town 2-3 Derby County
Report Supplied by Brighouse Town AFC.
Photo: Munro Sports Pics
Brighouse Town Women started their first ever campaign in the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier with narrow 3-2 defeat to title favourites Derby County.
Town found themselves 1-0 down mid way through the first half, and nearly went 2-0 down soon after but for good work from Kayleigh Bamforth to prevent a tap in at the back post.
Brighouse responded excellently. Danielle Whitham smashed the equaliser in the top corner after excellent work by Amy Woodruff. They soon found themselves in the lead when Darcie Greene found sister Drew with a long diagonal pass. Drew caught the Derby keeper out with a clever finish to put Town 2-1 up before the break.
After the interval, Brighouse should have made it 3-1 on a couple of occasions, the first was a bullet header from Woodruff from a Leah Embley cross and the second a bizarre sequence of events found Woodruff through on goal, the linesman had his flag up from a clear offside but the referee waved play on, Woodruff reacted too slowly and a missed opportunity went begging.
As the game entered it’s final stages, it looked as though Town could do the unthinkable and looked in control, however, a long hopeful ball caught Becky Gompertz out leaving Derby’s Sophie Domingo one on one with debutant keeper Imogen Maguire. Maguire brought Domingo down resulting in a penalty, it was emphatically executed in the the top left hand corner despite Maguire’s best efforts.
Derby then dealt the killer blow and a real sucker punch with a quickfire goal to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes remaining, Town huffed and puffed but couldn’t find the equaliser their play so richly deserved.
Lessons learnt as they made the step up in the top National League division as they prepare to travel to Hull City this coming Sunday. Hull managed to pick up a point away at Loughbrough but threw away a 2-1 lead in the 94th minute. The game will be played at Haworth Park, please follow @btafcwomen on Twitter for all the info or live updates.
Player of the match Danielle Whitham
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