Huddersfield Town Women had to settle for a draw as a spirited Fylde Women side battled to the final whistle to a gain a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Stafflex Arena.

 

Having led 2-0 at half time, the result will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Terriers, who are expected to be competing for the title come the season’s end in May.

 

The hosts, surprisingly, started rather slowly in a largely unentertaining first thirty minutes, but sure enough, they moved through the gears to take the lead.

 

Sarah Danby’s pace created space for a brilliant cross which was only half cleared to Kate Mallin inside the area and the skipper rifled the ball beyond the Fylde goalkeeper.

 

Town emerged 4-1 winners from this fixture last season and it looked as though the hosts were going to repeat the feat when Lucy Sowerby finished smartly into the bottom corner following neat footwork in the area to give her side a 2-0 lead at the break.

 

But whatever the Fylde manager said in his half-time team talk worked wonders as the visitors came out of the blocks flying in the second half.

 

Town gave the ball away cheaply from the restart as Redgrave played the ball to Georgia Stevens who finished past debutant Olivia Clark in the Huddersfield net to get the Coasters right back in the contest.

 

Despite testing the Fylde ‘keeper, the Terriers failed to convert chances to goals in the second half as Jess Carberry pulled off a stunning goal-line save to deny Leah Embley from marking her debut with what have been a match-winning goal.

 

Alas, Town were unable to kill the game off and were duly punished in added time.

 

Emily Hollinshead did tremendously well to beat three Huddersfield defenders before her shot was parried away by the impressive Clark, but substitute Georgia Payton was the only proactive player in the six-yard box and slotted the rebound home from a tight angle to give her side what seemed like an unlikely point.

 

Huddersfield must now dust themselves down and prepare for the visit of Nottingham Forest (2pm kick off at Shelley FC) in the first round of the FA WNL Cup next weekend as the new-look squad looks for their first win of the 2019/20 campaign.