Huddersfield Town Women maintain top spot in promotion race despite being held to a goalless draw by Norton
Glen Preston’s side stay top on goal difference after 0-0 draw with Norton and Stockton Ancients
Huddersfield Town Women boss Glen Preston was left frustrated after his side failed to pick up all three points at home to Norton and Stockton Ancients, a point that keeps them top of the pile in the promotion race from FAWNL Division One North.
In a game Town dominated, more injuries meant their depleted squad were left missing their ruthless edge as they missed a chance to pull clear at the top.
Preston was forced into more changes this week with Neve Birtwistle joining the list of players missing through knocks. The game also came too early for Fliss Jones to recover from a concussion as well as missing top scorer Louise Biggins.
In a game of few clear cut chances, Beth Ibbotson saw Town’s best chance cleared off the line when her header looked goal-bound in the second half.
Rhema Lord-Mears struck the bar and Beth Stanfield’s deflected effort rolled agonisingly wide of the post late on but Town couldn’t find a breakthrough.
And you don’t always get what you deserve in this league. Town’s opponents did nothing to warrant a competitive game of football - but in fairness, they got the point they came for.
Elsewhere in the promotion race, Leeds left it late to beat Blackburn to join Town on 33 points at the top of the league, behind only on goal difference. And Wythenshawe were beaten by Durham Cestria - meaning a gap is opening up to third place even with the disappointing result.
Town would be two points clear but their appeal against a two-point deduction wasn’t upheld.
After the game, Glen Preston tried to see the positives of the point, telling We Are Terriers: “On one hand it’s frustrating and disappointing.
“On the other hand it’s another point on the board. With Wythenshawe losing it’s a point gained from a top two perspective and another game down.
And Preston knew it would be a tough ask with Norton being a side who like to upset the applecart with the teams at the top.
He said: “Norton are a tricky opposition. They grind out results. They’re always there or thereabouts against the top teams, taking points of them every year.
“They know how to kill a game of football and make it scrappy and they’ve done a good job of that today.
“From our point of view we need to reflect on why we couldn’t get the ball over the line.
“We had moments. We’ve had a couple cleared off the line and hit the woodwork. But we didn’t do enough to get on the end of crosses.
“I thought the first half performance was good. There were at least three terrific crosses into the box but our forwards didn’t get into the right areas to get on the end of them.”
In 2026 Town are unbeaten and by 8 March they’re yet to concede a goal in all competitions. However, with three tight 1-0 wins in a row, Preston admits his concern around the lack of goals.
He said: “It is a worry. But most of the games this year have been scrappy games on horrible pitches.
“Pitches like this level the playing field and make it difficult to play on, especially when teams sit with 6,7,8 players behind the ball.
“We’ve got to get better at working out how to work an opening when it’s not as easy to play and the ball’s bobbling and bouncing all over.
“Normally we have players like Birtwistle, Elford and Biggins who can play more of a direct and physical game but they weren’t available today.”
Up next for Town is a County Cup semi-final clash with Barnsley and Preston sees it as a perfect opportunity to take a break from league action and reset ready for the run-in.
Preston said: “Barnsley are always a tough challenge. They’re always really up for it.
“They want to win the cup, and so do we, but our objectives might be a little bit different.
“We want to win it but at the same time we need to focus on the league. So we’ll be prioritising next week to get players match sharpness and try and tweak one or two things from today’s performance.”
Town take on Barnsley in the County Cup semi-final at the Stafflex Arena next Sunday at 2pm.