Brighouse Town Women stunned by Mccoy's strike in Fylde defeat

With 85 minutes on the clock the referee awarded Fylde a free-kick on the edge of the box following a tackle by the impressive Isobel Dean on substitute Sasha Rowe.

And veteran Mccoy unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net to spark scenes of wild celebration to secure the three points.

It was the standout moment of a match that never lacked effort but was short of real quality.

Brighouse coach Rob Mitchell handed a debut to new signing Becky Flaherty in goal while Dean continued to deputise at centre-back for suspended captain Annabelle Cass.

Drew Greene was missing because of illness while popular striker Amy Woodruff has left the club.

Fylde’s Amy Hughes crashed a shot against the crossbar after five minutes but it was the only real goalmouth action of the first 45 minutes.

The other incident of note in the first half was the sight of Fylde’s Jodie Redgrave being sin binned for one word too many to the referee.

Brighouse went into the game as the only team in the league to have scored in every league match this season but they couldn’t create any clear-cut chances on the bobbly pitch.

The game look destined to finish 0-0 until Mccoy’s late, late show.

After the match Mitchell said he was disappointed by the result but not the performance.

“I thought we did a lot of things well except in the final third of the pitch,” he said. “Fylde are a good team but the pitch made it impossible to play free-flowing football.

“We know about Mccoy’s talent and I don’t think you’ll see many better free-kicks this season.”

Brighouse host Burnley on Wednesday.