Guiseley 3 – 2 Mossley Hill 

Two goals from Sarah Danby and one from Abbie McIver were enough to keep the Vixens on top of the table after Hull City lost their game. 

The home side were forced to earn their stripes after Mossley Hill went in 2-1 up at half-time after goals from Nikki James and Amy Hughes put them ahead. 

Guiseley started brightly playing direct, attacking football and managed to break down the Mossley Hills defence after only 12 minutes.

Danby floated a corner into the box, resulting in a scramble before the ball fell to McIver who put the ball into the back of ‘keeper Alanya Hannigan’s goal.

It was more of the same until just after the half hour mark when a mistake in midfield allowed Mossley Hill attacker Amy Hughes to pick the ball up and dribble through the Guiseley defence. She cut inside and played the ball into the middle of the box where Nikki James managed to squeeze the ball past Beth Seasman to put her side level.

On the stroke of half-time the away side bagged another when Amy Hughes had a go from the edge of the box with the outside of her foot, curling the ball into the top corner. Not many ‘keepers would have kept that out.

The Vixens started the second-half looking a totally different side. Five minutes after the break McIver knocked the ball past her marker and put an inch perfect ball into the box and it was met by Danby’s foot to make it 2-2.

Ten minutes later and another goal came from Danby from a solo effort. She outwitted her defender, cut inside and curled the ball into the side of Hannigan’s net to put the league leaders back in front.

Towards the end of the game Latayisah Pohtos and Morgan Durham came on to make their Guiseley Vixens’ debuts. Pohtos had a chance in the 90th minute to seal the result after going round the ‘keeper but a misplaced shot saw it go the wrong side of the post.

In the end though it didn’t matter as the referee blew his whistle for full-time and the Vixens emerged with all three points. 

Joint manager Kyle O’Reilly said: “We haven’t played for a few weeks and we half expected to be rusty after that amount of time but today we played good football. In front of goal we lacked that little something, hitting the woodwork a few times and their ‘keeper stopped a lot of our shots but overall I’m happy we got the three points in the end.” 

Joint manager Glen Preston added:”I think at half time being 2-1 down was a real wake up call. It showed our character to come back and win in the second-half. Mossley Hill defending in numbers didn’t make it easy at all but we managed to break them down.

“Looking to next week I feel we’ve got a point to prove. Despite today not being the best of performances, we got the win and we can take this momentum into the game against Leeds and hopefully get the points we need there,” he finished. 

Starting XI:

1 Beth Seasman
2 Charlotte Blythe
3 Ellie Hall (Subbed Off)
4 Chantelle O’Hara
5 Alarna Fuller (C)
6 Olivia DaCosta
7 Natalie Brace
11 Abbie McIver (Subbed Off) (Goal 12)
8 Hannah Hale (Subbed Off)
9 Sarah Danby (Goal 50, 60)
10 Olivia Thackeray

Substitutions:

12 Elizabeth White (Used Sub)
14 Latayisah Pohtos (Used Sub)
15 Morgan Durham (Used Sub)

Attendance: 35
Words by Oliver Coultas.