Bad day for Harleston

Northampton Saints 1, Harleston Ladies 0

This was not a good day for Harleston Magpies Ladies as they went down 1-0 away to Northampton Saints who prior to this game had not won a league game all season, although they had picked up a useful away draw the previous week.

Adding to this the 1-1 draw the previous week Magpies have made a disappointing start to the second half of the season.

Next week Magpies play Horsham at home and they will need to raise their game if they want to return to the form they showed before Christmas.

The first half against Saints was fairly even as both teams battled it out in a scrappy midfield game that lacked quality passing from either side. Bryony Lund moved into the middle alongside Debbie McAllen due to the absence of Frances Sumner because of illness. Charlotte Harrison also continued her come back with her second League game.

Northampton certainly had the appetite for this game and took the lead twenty minutes into the first half. It had an element of good fortune about it in that an unexpected deflection of the stick wrong footed the Magpies defence but given the opportunity they made good use of this situation to attack down the right and pull the ball back to score.

At the other end Magpies responded with a couple of half chances which Northampton cleared comfortably.

Magpies played with more intensity in the second half and for a while Cherry Seaborn caused problems down the right with her speed. Northampton were forced back into their half for most of the remainder of the game and Magpies' best chances came from penalty corners. Angie Whelhouse had two shots saved as did Emily Wilford.

Whilst Magpies had the territorial advantage Northampton were proving very hard to break down and in truth Magpies never really looked likely to create any real chances.