Workington Reds Ladies scored their first win of the League season with a 2-1 home win over in-form Haslington.
It was an impressive effort as the visitors – Haslingden Girls and Ladies FC to give them their full title – arrived at Derwent Park with four wins in five games.
Certainly the win will have boosted the Reds confidence ahead of Sunday’s trip to Ponteland United Women in the second qualifying round of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.
Despite having played well in their first three fixtures in the North West Women’s Regional Division One North, the Ladies they were without a win and looked to build on the success of the previous week’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup victory.
The Reds couldn’t have got off to a better start, taking the lead after only two minutes.
The ball was shifted left to right along the back line where Eleanor McDonald fed the ball to Emi Rudd in the centre circle.
She spun and squared-up a defender before finding Morgan McGrady on the left.
The Haslingden full-back and keeper looked favourites to deal with the danger but good pressure from McGrady unsettled the pair and she forced a mistake.
McGrady was then quickest to react and composed herself before slotting home into an empty net.
Good play from the home side then followed as the Reds shaded the next 20 minutes.
McGrady turned creator in a promising attack, finding Rudd but her shot at goal was held by Haslingden keeper Leah Jackson.
Haslingden then started to settle and it was the Reds that found themselves under significant pressure for the final 20 minutes of the first half.
The creative play that had taken Haslingden to the top of the table was starting to appear and the Reds defence was repeatedly put under serious amounts of pressure.
Laura Miller’s assertive work in goal showed just before the break when she impressed with a positive punch to clear a corner from a crowded six-yard box.
Still trailing 1-0 at the break the visitors were out of the blocks the quickest in the second, and drew level within two minutes.
A ball from the back was flicked on to find Megan Smith in behind and slotted home well from close in to give Miller no chance.
The pressure grew on the Reds with Linzi Donaldson and Megan Yarnold in midfield forced to dig deep to support their back line and contain the league leaders.
Reds shuffled the pack with Leah Cottier replacing the hard-working Yarnold and slotting in at left-back.
Sophie Birkett moved to the right wing allowing Ellie Ritchie to switch to her favoured position of centre midfield.
Ritchie’s impact in the middle was notable as her involvement in the game grew.
New signing Kacey Rodgers came on for her debut and replaced Laura Ivison up front.
Ivison’s keen running off the ball and the pressure she had applied in closing down the Haslingden defence was evident throughout but she had been restricted by their keen defensive organisation and was limited to a strike from distance which was too high.
A well worked corner on the left saw a Donaldson strike heading towards the top right corner only to be headed off the line.
Donaldson, like Yarnold, had grafted to establish a platform and was replaced by Hannah Ridgewell in the middle.
The freshness in the legs of the substitutes had reinvigorated the home sides resolve and the Reds Ladies finished the game strongly.
Link ups between Ritchie, McGrady, Rodgers, Birkett and Rudd started to develop and the Haslingden defence started to show cracks that weren’t evident earlier.
As the game entered the final stages, the visitors looked to have taken the lead only for their effort to have been ruled offside.
Then with seven minutes remaining Reds regained their advantage.
McGrady capitalised on a loose pass among the Haslingden defenders around the halfway line.
Pushing the ball forward and splitting the two covering defender, McGrady closed in on goal.
Her strike beat the advancing Jackson only to ricochet off the covering defender but back into her path and she slotted home.
Emi Rudd had rightly caught the eye of the Haslingden team and for the second week in succession was awarded Player of the Game for her composure on the ball, intelligent distribution and all round effort over the 90 minutes.
The result lifted the Ladies up to eighth in the league with five points off their four games from a win, two draws and a loss.
Reds team: Laura Miller, Eleanor McDonald, Naomi Foster, Holly Redmond, Sophie Birkett, Linzi Donaldson, Megan Yarnold, Ellie Ritchie, Emi Rudd, Morgan McGrady, Laura Ivison. Subs: Alice Kemp, Hannah Ridgewell, Kacey Rodgers, Leah Cottier, Paige Johnstone.
