Huddersfield Town Women manager Glen Preston disappointed with the manner of his side’s exit from the FA Women’s Cup
Town bow out of the competition with a 3-1 defeat to Leeds in the second round.
Huddersfield Town Women manager Glen Preston was left dismayed by his team’s ‘really poor’ performance in both boxes as they are knocked out of the FA Women’s Cup by local rivals Leeds United.
A late lifeline from Rebecca Beresford wasn’t enough for Town after goals from Sian Gibrill-Keating, Izzy Elliott and Drew Greene ended the contest early.
In a game marred by awful weather, Town started well. Hannah Burgess forced Leeds’ ‘keeper Simpson into a smart stop before Louise Biggins fired wide from range.
The rain kept pouring and referee Marcin Iwanski paused the game with conditions worsening to check on problem areas of the pitch - but we continued.
And Leeds took the lead shortly after the restart. A long freekick from wide on the left was met by Gibrill-Keating who headed past Bethan Davies to give the visitors the lead.
Town almost responded instantly through Burgess but for a fantastic block from close range.
Preston praised his side’s performance in between the two boxes and their dominance was for all to see, but they were let down when it came to being awake in both areas.
And that was true after the break when Leeds doubled their lead with a carbon copy of their first.
This time Izzy Elliott hooked the ball home after 54 minutes to make it 2-0.
Town continued to push forward and had all of the ball but couldn’t find that final pass to cause their visitors any major problems.
And, as is the case when a team has all the ball, the opposition break and score. A rare bit of quality in the game resulted in Leeds putting the game to bed with 20 minutes to play.
Neat play in midfield saw the ball sent out to the left to Chloe Dixon who whipped in a great cross which was met by Drew Greene ghosting in at the back post.
Town kept pushing and their efforts were rewarded with five minutes to play when good work from Biggins saw her long range strike rebound back off the bar - allowing Rebecca Beresford to smash home for a consolation.
But ultimately it wasn’t enough and Preston was left to rue what could have been.
He told We Are Terriers: “It’s disappointing. But more the manner that we’ve gone out of the cup. I think between the two penalty boxes we’ve arguably been the better team for most of the game.
“But in the two boxes we’ve been really poor. That’s the difference today.
“The disappointment stems from the fact that before the game we’d identified it as one of the key battle areas that we had to win.
“We knew set pieces and counter attacks were the two areas that we were going to have to stop Leeds from winning, two areas we had to dominate.
“And we’ve probably ended up conceding two of the softest set piece goals I’ve seen.”
It’s three without a win in all competitions for Town and Preston is keen for his team to put things right where it matters in next week’s league trip to Wythenshawe.
He added: “We’ve got 24 hours to let this one hurt. Then we’ve got to wipe the slate clean.
“We’re going away to Wythenshawe in a game that’s more important than today’s in the grand scheme of things.
“So we have to find that resilience to bounce back.”
Next up for Town women is that trip to Wythenshawe next Sunday.