Huddersfield Town Women manager Glen Preston sees the positives as his side were knocked out of the FAWNL Plate by Cheadle Town Stingers
Preston’s side were beaten 2-1 after a late fightback despite Fliss Jones’ sixth of the season
Huddersfield Town Women manager Glen Preston admits being out of the FAWNL Plate will help them in the long run with less fixtures for his threadbare squad.
Town took the lead in Cheadle through Fliss Jones when she drove into the box to fire her side into a second half lead. This was Jones’ sixth goal in all competitions and first start back after a spell on the sidelines.
However, Cheadle were then given a lifeline on 75 minutes when the ball bobbled up in the box and hit Rebecca Beresford with the referee judging it to be a handball.
Imogen Porteous-Williams stepped up and sent Davies the wrong way to level the game.
And with only five minutes to go, Cheadle won it. A cross from the right found Porteous-Williams who flicked the ball past Davies at the near post to make it 2-1.
Town had chances to level it late on when Molly Firth struck the post and and Louise Biggins could only half-connect with a cross but it wasn’t to be for Glen Preston’s side.
After the game Preston told We Are Terriers: “We’ve talked about this as staff about how these games can become a bit of a distraction.
“We made the National League Cup final a couple of years ago and it really depleted us towards the end of the season and took a lot of energy out of the squad.
“The league is what we need to focus on and with us still having five or six players out it was always in the back of our minds.
“So as much as we’d have liked to have done well, we just congratulate Cheadle and move on.”
But in more positive news, Preston confirmed the club had made a new attacking signing to bolster his options - one that will be announced soon.
He added: “I won’t say who at the minute because we haven’t announced it but it’s a player who can play anywhere across the front four.
“She’s very neat and tidy and very technical so she really fits the way we can play - although she probably wouldn’t have suited today’s game where it was just up and under football.”
TOWN TEAM vs CHEADLE TOWN STINGERS (A)
Bethan Davies; Alise Gindra, Autumn Housley, Beth Stanfield (C), Rebecca Beresford; Ella Duffield, Louise Biggins; Fliss Jones (Molly Firth ‘72), Rhema Lord-Mears , Kate Mallin (Brierley Keane ‘90) ; Hannah Burgess
UNUSED SUB
Lauren Joyce, Evie Franks, Franc Brown
GOALS
Fliss Jones (‘67)
Next up for Town Women is a return to FA Women’s National League Division One North action with another trip over the Pennines to face Chorley on Sunday 16 November.