Brighouse Town Women defeat rivals Huddersfield Town thanks to bizarre own goal

TV crews from ITV and the BBC joined a bumper crowd of 273 at the Yorkshire Payments Stadium ahead of the visitors’ showpiece FA Cup game against Everton on Sunday.

However a gusty wind and hard pitch made it difficult for both teams to play much passing football on the night.

Huddersfield went into the match on a back of an eight-match winning run and the best of the early chances fell to Glen Preston’s team.

On 13 minutes Brittany Sanderson’s mazy run into the box was stopped by a good save from Brighouse goalkeeper Imogen Maguire, who was up quickly to pounce on the rebound.

Five minutes late Brighouse’s left back Isobel Dean limped off on her first competitive start after a crunching tackle by Laura Elford and was replaced by Becky Gompertz.

Huddersfield almost scored after 28 minutes but Katy Mallin’s shot crashed off the outside of the post.

The only goal of the game came after 33 minutes in bizarre circumstances.

Gompertz’s long ball over the top found the hardworking Ella Hartley but the ball held up on in wind as two retreating defenders closed her down. Huddersfield’s goalkeeper Bethan Davies, who had been a virtual spectator until that point, saw her clearance smash into her team-mate Paige Crossman and loop back into the goal from fully 25 yards.

Huddersfield went in search of an equaliser but couldn’t find a way past former player Shauna Legge, who seemed to get her head or outstretched foot on every Huddersfield attack and was voted the player-of-the-match.

Brighouse began the second half with the wind behind their backs but were largely happy to soak up the pressure and play on the counter-attack.

The midfield trio of Cara Fields, Danielle Whitham and Sophie John ran themselves into the ground as the tackles started to fly in.

Brighouse came close to a second when Hartley found herself bearing down on Huddersfield’s goal but Beth Ibbotson timed her sliding tackle to perfection.

Brittany Sanderson came close to an equaliser for the visitors after 68 minutes but her header flew over the bar while at the other end Brighouse had a chance cleared off the line by Georgia Marshall on 71 minutes in a goalmouth melee.

Both managers made a flurry of substitutions as the game went into the final 15 and Huddersfield won a series of free-kicks as the players started to tire.

With virtually the last kick of the game Huddersfield’s striker let fly from outside the box but was denied by a flying save from Maguire.

After the game Rob Mitchell praised his Brighouse team. “It was a scrappy game in tough conditions but that’s when you want your players to stand up and that’s what they did,” he said.

“Huddersfield are a very good team so we knew it was going to be a battle so to get a 1-0 win was outstanding.

“It’s important we build on this when we head to Loughborough Lightning on Sunday.”