Early goals cost Spurs Ladies at United

Spurs Ladies’ perfect start to the FA Women’s Championship came to an end with a 4-1 defeat to Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday, writes Rosie Bonass.

The Ladies came up against Casey Stoney’s side for the first time since they formed in the summer and goals from Lauren James, Jess Sigsworth (2) and Charlie Devlin secured three points for the Red Devils in a top of the table clash.

Angela Addison netted a late consolation goal for Spurs but it wasn’t to be as United moved within two points of the league leaders, with a game in hand against Leicester City Women.

Manager Karen Hills made three changes to her side that had a 100 per cent league record going into Sunday’s match.

Chloe Morgan regained her position in goal, Megan Wynne started ahead of Lucia Leon at right back, and Sophie Mclean was introduced into central midfield with Coral-Jade Haines named on the bench.

The hosts hadn’t played a game in the last two weeks and their freshness showed as they went ahead after 10 minutes through James, who found space at the edge of the penalty area to fire the ball past Morgan into the bottom left corner.

Eight minutes later, James set up United’s second with a delivery in from the left, which Sigsworth tapped in.

With four minutes to play before the interval, the home side went 3-0 up as Sigsworth got her head on the end of a free kick at the back post supplied by Katie Zelem, to score her second goal of the match.

Spurs gave a strong defensive account of themselves in the second half as Morgan pulled off some impressive saves to deny attempts from United’s substitutes Mollie Green and Charlotte Devlin.

Shortly after, Leon who replaced Wynne in the 72nd minute in defence cleared the ball off the line to prevent a fourth goal from another United substitute, Leah Galton.

Devlin gave the hosts a four goal cushion ten minutes from time as she struck neatly from six yards into the bottom corner.

Two minutes later Addison, who worked tirelessly along with her teammates, headed in a corner kick from Jenna Schillaci to end the home side’s 100 per cent clean-sheet record in the league, and make it 4-1.

Match reaction

Karen Hills expressed her disappointment at full-time but touched on the positives that her side can take from the defeat.

“We always knew it was going to be a tough challenge to come here – they are a very good side,” she said.

“To concede some of those goals as early as we did made it challenging. Going in at 3-0 down was always a tough ask for any team to recover from but I thought our girls came out with fighting spirit and definitely took the game to them in the second half.

“If we look at the second half, the result was 1-1 so we’ll take some positives from the game and regroup.

“We deserved more from the game but credit to them, they were clinical in front of goal and took their chances well.”

Match data

FA Women's Championship

Goals: Manchester United – James 10, JSigsworth 18, 41, Devlin 80. Spurs Ladies – Addison 82.

Referee: Lucy Oliver.

Venue: Leigh Sports Village.