Match Report:
Halifax fc women 1 – 0 Huddersfield town
Halifax FC Women beat Huddersfield Town 1 – 0 in their latest league fixture in a game with a dramatic ending.
By Jack Snaith
Halifax FC Women earned their first three points of the season in dramatic fashion, with a last minute winner, courtesy of Darcie Greene. The full-time score was 1-0 to Halifax after a huge effort to keep a clean sheet and a penalty save by Halifax’s Becky Flaherty to keep the Eagles in the game.
The first 10 minutes of play were even for both sides, neither team creating any chances and no threats to each others goals. Halifax’s first chance came from a free kick in the 11th minute, which was crossed into the box by Lucy Sowerby, who’s ball couldn’t find a Halifax player.
Monique Wilson appeared to be a huge danger to the Huddersfield players, twisting and turning past the Huddersfield players, she appeared to be untouchable.
Another chance came from Halifax following a corner, the Huddersfield goalkeeper spilled the ball, finding Shauna Legge who shot over the bar on a half-volley. Huddersfield hit back with a chance of their own as the broke down the left wing and firing a shot who could only find the safe hands of Becky Flaherty in goal.
Half time came and there were hardly any chances for both teams, they seemed to lack the final pass to create chances. However, both teams were defending brilliantly at this point.
The second half saw more action and more chances for the Eagles, as the first 10 minutes saw chances from Cass, who’s shot was saved by the Huddersfield keeper and also Drew Greene who just fired wide of the post.
In the 66th minute of the game, Huddersfield won a penalty through a handball by Dean. There was a slight delay in taking the penalty as Monique Wilson was on the ground after taking a knock. This was a huge chance for the Terriers to go one ahead, it seemed that this game only needed one goal to win with how tight the nature of the game was.
But the terriers could not capitalise on the penalty, an outstanding and heroic save by Flaherty saved the penalty and kept the Eagles in the game. A huge moment in the game.
After the penalty save, the game really shifted up in tempo, the Eagles constantly pushing forward in search of a winner.
There was a huge counter-attacking opportunity for Huddersfield in the 85th minute which was spectacularly cut out by Cass with a brilliant tackle, A huge moment so late on.
The scenes at full time, warm embraces with Darcie Greene
After 94 minutes of play, Darcie Greene cut inside with the ball at the edge of the box onto her left foot and struck the ball beautifully to lift the ball over the keeper, off the crossbar and into the back of the net, to the delight of every Halifax fan present as well as the bench which erupted at the sight of the goal. The goal meant that the Eagles had just won their first game of the season.
Full time came shortly after and the coach, Robert Mitchell gave us his thoughts on the game:
“I feel so happy, not for me but for the players, I know how hard they work and I see how hard they work all the time.”
Next up: Halifax will face Sporting Khalsa in their latest FAWNL cup fixture which will be played on Sunday 10th September at 2pm. Kick off will be at the Leading Edge Signage Clayborn ground (Liversedge).