10/10 for Ladies 1s

Rotherham Ladies I 0-10 Halifax Ladies I

With the arrival of the New Year and Halifax Ladies entering the second half of the season at the top of North East Division Two, their away fixture at bottom placed Rotherham was a must win game.

Halifax struggled to link passes together in the first five minutes and lacked penetration into the Rotherham D but once they settled and looked less rusty the forwards found themselves with numerous attacks on goal. After just 7 minutes the first goal was scored by Dani Parker who sent the ball into the left corner after a pull back from Katie Wood.

Amelie Horner, Regan Midgley and Courtney Fisher worked hard on the wings to keep the ball in the attacking half and simple triangle passing from Amy March, Michaela Holroyde, Amelie Horner and Katie Love kept the ball moving and enabled the ball to enter the D. With a number of short corners awarded to Halifax the ladies were unable to covert any into a goal but the added pressure and unrelenting attack finally saw Halifax score their second goal after 23 minutes with a skilful reverse hit from striker Katie Wood.

Halifax started the second half with fierce pressure and an impenetrable press. With the ball going straight to the Halifax midfield from a Rotherham hit out, Ruth Prosser sent the ball trough to Dani Parker in the D who sent a square ball to Katie Wood who mimicked her first goal with a nice reverse shot past the keeper into the bottom left corner.

This set the tone for the second half as Halifax cut the Rotherham defence to shreds. Five minutes into the half a shot from Michaela Holroyde rebounded off the keeper into Parkers path to score her second.

Two minutes later Halifax extended their lead again when Regan Midgley’s long range pass put Katie Wood through to complete her hattrick.

Halifax went six goals up when another attack immediately afterwards led to Isobel Crowe’s first goal of the game after a selfless pass by Courtenay Fisher. The youngster scored again a minute later after good approach play by the whole team.

At this point Rotherham must have feared a cricket score was on the cards but they dug in and kept the visitors from adding further to the score line until 22 minutes into the half. Parker outpaced the defence to end up one on one with the keeper, who despite the score line had a good game. The initial shot was blocked but when the ball fell back to the Halifax Captain she gave a five yard pass for Crowe to lift the ball over the keeper to complete her first 1st team hattrick, which gained her the player of the match award.

Five minutes later Parker gained her own hattrick when she scored from a penalty corner and just before the final whistle she rounded off the scoring with a fierce undercut shot into the top of the net.

Hopefully Halifax will take confidence into Saturdays game against Boston Spa, who are the only team to defeat them this season.