Brighouse Town Ladies goal ace joins Derby County

Actions from Brighouse Ladies v Blackburn Ladies, at St Giles Road. Pictured is Jodie Redgrave

Redgrave, Town’s captain and the league’s leading goal scorer, will ply her trade at Derby County next term while Beresford has decided to retire from football.

On losing his talismanic number nine, manager Rob Mitchell said: “Any club that loses a player of Jodie’s calibre is going to have a job on their hands to replace her.

“I don’t think it’s possible but what we can do is bring in three or four players of top quality to help towards winning the league this season.

“With Aimi hanging up her boots we need to replace 50 goals. Charlotte Proud will be more than capable of stepping up to the plate and we have a couple of really exciting signings to announce shortly who have experience of playing in higher leagues and winning them.”

Redgrave, who has bagged a remarkable 92 goals in three years at the club, said: “Choosing to leave was a very difficult decision.

“Having said that, my decision has been made a lot easier with the positive support and encouragement I have received from the coaching staff, players and fans at Brighouse.

“Football is a short career, especially for female players, so I felt I needed to take this opportunity whilst it was on the table and do what was right for me.”

Redgrave scored decisive goals to knock Derby out of both cups last season.