Three days after he was nominated for FA Women’s National League Division One manager of the month, Simon Wood watched his side show real fight to earn a muddy three points away to Norton & Stockton Ancients Ladies Sunday afternoon.

It was a hard-scrapped 3-2 win against a plucky Norton side, delivered courtesy of goals from Izzy Elliott and Kath Smith, alongside a late own goal off a Chloe Dixon corner.

After the match, Wood spoke to LUTV about his side’s performance.

“If you want to sum up football in one game, watch that one,” the boss said. “We have had to really work hard in the first half and got our reward for that, bringing the game into the half at 1-0.

“The second half we went to 2-0, then probably had a little bit of complacency in our performance. Norton are a team that are never dead; they work so hard. We let them back into the game.

“But I have said in my postgame huddle with my players, ‘you found a way to get over the line.’ Credit to Norton, but credit to our players as well. The group of players we have got have some real character. They are a group that are in this together.

“At this time of the season, we are just taking everything one game at a time. You can’t blame a pitch, and Norton in the first half played to this pitch better than we did. But we talked at halftime about the areas of the pitch we wanted to play in, and I think we did that well in the second half.

The Whites’ next fixture, a home FA Cup tie against third tier West Bromwich Albion, will be a challenge, Wood admitted. “We played them earlier this season, at their place, took them to penalties. Our players want to be competing against teams like that. They want to go and represent themselves.

“We’re at home, and it’s a big game, so hopefully we can cause some chaos and get a win.”