Brighouse Town Women cruise past Hull City ahead of Huddersfield Town derby

Action from Brighouse Town Women's fine win over Hull City. Picture: Ray Spencer

It was Brighouse’s first league game in 84 days because of their cup commitments and they never gave their opponents time to settle.

Their first chance came with less than a minute on the clock when Leah Embley’s through ball found Drew Greene but her shot was saved by the foot of Hull goalkeeper Abigail Wallace and Amy Woodruff’s follow-up was cleared off the line. The resultant corner found Woodruff but her header crashed against the bar.

Brighouse didn’t have to wait long for the opener with Greene’s cross after five minutes finding Cara Fields for a good finish.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 when Leah Embley picked her way through the visitors’ defence to fire into the bottom corner for her 17th goal of the season.

Hull looked dangerous on the counter attack and Helen Lynskey flashed one wide of the left post from the edge of the box.

However on 20 minutes it was 3-0 when centre-back Shauna Legge weaved her way through Hull’s defence before firing against the post for Embley to made no mistake from close range with the rebound.

Hull saw a header from a free-kick caught under the crossbar by the home team’s goalkeeper Imogen Maguire but she was largely untested and it was no surprise when Brighouse made it 4-0 on 39 minutes when Woodruff set up Embley for her hat-trick.

Minutes earlier Brighouse had strong claims for a penalty turned down when goalkeeper Wallace appeared to haul down Embley but the referee waved play on.

Hull were much improved in the second half and the team brought on all four subs just before the hour in Issy Dean, Ella Hartley, Monique Watson and Darcie Greene ahead of Wednesday’s game against Huddersfield Town.

It was Dean and Hartley’s league debuts for Brighouse and Green’s first league action since recovering from an ankle injury.

Sophie John and the impressive Danielle Whitham both tested Wallace before Green wrapped up the scoring after 65 minutes when she slotted in the penalty that her trickery had won. It was her fifth goal of the season – to put her level with her sister Drew who was watching on from the sidelines!

Brighouse beat Hull City 5-1 earlier in the season but the visitors were denied a consolation goal this time by a determined defensive display.

Manager Rob Mitchell said afterwards he was delighted with the performance and the result but admitted Huddersfield would represent a different challenge on Wednesday.

“When you’ve not played in the league for three months it’s nice to get another three points on the board,” he said.

“There were excellent performances all over the pitch. Leah got another hat-trick and it was nice to get a clean sheet.

“I thought Danielle Whitham was immense for 90 minutes and covered every blade of grass.

“We know Huddersfield are one of the top teams in the league but I’ve got a really honest bunch of players and I think it should be an excellent local derby."

Brighouse host Huddersfield Town on Wednesday, January 26 at the Yorkshire Payments Stadium with kick-off at 7.45pm. Admission is £5 for adults and £3 for concessions.