Huddersfield Town Women through to County Cup final after 2-1 win over Barnsley
Town reach their tenth consecutive final thanks to goals from Louise Biggins and Laura Elford
Laura Elford returned from injury to fire Town Women into the final of the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA County Cup after a 2-1 win over Barnsley Women.
Manager Glen Preston praised the ‘professional performance’ of his side after they reached the final for the tenth final in a row and is looking to put right last year’s disappointing defeat.
Louise Biggins gave Town a first half lead before they were pegged back with a freak goal just after the break. Elford’s 88th minute strike sealed Town’s route back to the final.
Preston told We Are Terriers: “We thoroughly deserved it.
“We’ve put on a professional performance. We rotated the squad and we got all the outcomes out if it that we really wanted.
“The only exception to that is we could have scored one or two more goals that I felt we deserved.
“It’s another final for us and this year it’s about putting right what went wrong in last year’s final.”
In yet more tricky conditions Town began brightly with Tamira Livingston having a lot of joy down the left flank - teeing up Hannah Burgess and Lucy Allman in quick succession but neither could find the target.
The biggest chance of the opening stages fell to Kate Mallin. Biggins rode a challenge on the left wing and, with the referee playing advantage, she put the ball on a plate for Mallin 10 yards out but she could only steer a first time shot wide.
Barnsley’s only real efforts game from range and could have caught Town ‘keeper Kacy Woollam-Bolton out with a shot from range into the wind, but the stopper did well to hold.
The game could have gone either way in the space of one minute at the end of the first half. Woollam-Bolton gave the ball away on the edge of her box and was stranded but Autumn Housley was on hand to clear the Barnsley attackers shot off the line.
And then straight down the other end, Town took the lead. Brilliant play in midfield saw Neve Birtwistle break the lines and she gave the ball to the dangerous Livingston. Livingston drove into the box and set the ball back to Biggins who couldn’t miss from 12 yards.
The visitors came out fighting in the second half and were level within five minutes.
Ocean Rolandsen whipped a speculative cross into the back post away from the reach of Woollam-Bolton and it went in off the post to make it 1-1.
The goal saw Barnsley sense a chance to win it and had a flurry of chances. Rolandsen fired over before Woollam-Bolton was quick off her line to deny a one-on-one chance.
Then the Town stopper again came to the rescue as Maddi Green struck from close range but couldn’t beat the ‘keeper.
As Town tried to wrestle back momentum, Preston made three changes with Elford, Rhema Lord-Mears and Ella Duffield entering the field.
Lord-Mears was straight into the action as she whipped a brilliant cross into the back post but Burgess could only head over.
Town thought they’d won it earlier than they did when Elford excellently set up Allman who finished past Clarke but the assistant flagged for offside.
It then looked as if it was never going to come after Lord-Mears broke through one-on-one but was denied in fantastic fashion by Clarke when she looked certain to score.
But Town didn’t give up. A quick break saw Elford set up Biggins whose initial effort drew a great save from Clarke but Elford picked up the rebound, took a touch, and smashed into the bottom corner to send Town into the final.
Next up for Town is a return to league action with the visit of Stockport County on Wednesday evening.