County Cup Final
Brighouse Town Women 1 (Sowerby 21’)
Leeds United Women 1 (Smith 90+3’ pen)
Brighouse win 4-2 on penalties.
Brighouse: Handy (GK), Bamforth (Williams 72’), Legge, Dean, Dr. Greene, Fields, Sowerby (Cass 76’), Whitham, Da. Greene, Embley, John. Subs not used: Parc, Allman, Watson.
Leeds: Wattam (GK), Bass, Hannon, Hamill (C), Smart, Hunt (Dobby 71’), Smith, Danby, Ramsden, Hindle (Brown 75’), Bartup. Subs not used: Soares-Martins, Williams, Robson.
Referee: E Taylor
Venue: Fleet Lane
Attendance: 845
Leeds United were denied silverware after a penalty shoot-out loss in the County Cup final, following a late Kathryn Smith penalty deep into stoppage time to even the scores.
The final was played at Fleet Lane in front of a capacity crowd in a match that saw Brighouse on the attack early on with Georgia Wattam denying Caz Fields after just two minutes.
Former Leeds player Danielle Whitham then fired wide from the edge of the area for Brighouse, before Wattam denied Town’s top-scorer, Leah Embley.
Brighouse took the lead through Lucy Sowerby on 21 minutes after she tapped in from close range, after Wattam had initially made a superb stop to deny the first effort.
The Whites’ keeper then had to be alert to deny Sophie John, Sowerby and Drew Greene all in quick succession.
Sarah Danby tried her luck from distance as the first half was brought to a close, but her shot was easily held by Jen Hendy.
Brighouse had enjoyed large spells of pressure in the first 45 minutes at Fleet Lane, but for all their possession, no real chances had arrived other than the goal and they only went into the break with a one-goal advantage.
HALF TIME: Brighouse Town Women 1-0 Leeds United Women
Dan O’Hearne sent out his side in the second half looking to equalise, and a change of momentum soon arrived in the match. The Whites were relatively on top from kick-off and looking to create danger, which for large parts of the first half they had struggled to do.
A bit like their opponents in the first 45, Leeds were enjoying plenty of the ball but struggling to create any clear cut openings against their higher division counterparts.
It took until the 60th for Sophie John to test Wattam from range, whilst Bamforth then shot wide for Brighouse.
With Leeds pushing bodies forward, Rachel Hindle clipped the top of crossbar from 20 yards out in what was the closest effort of the match so far for the Whites.
Annabelle Cass then shot wide for Brighouse before Laura Bartup repeated that by shooting wide for Leeds in stoppage time, in what appeared to be the last chance of the match.
However, the game had hit the 93rd minute mark and with Leeds refusing to give up in this final, Katie Ramsden was felled in the area and the referee immediately pointed to the spot.
Kathryn Smith showed composure and slotted home from the spot to send the game into penalty a penalty shoot-out.
Sadly for Leeds, Brighouse scored all four of their of penalties and the Whites missed two, meaning Town retained the County Cup trophy.
FULL TIME: Brighouse Town Women (p)1-1 Leeds United Women
