Harleston Magpies Ladies 1, Horsham 0Harleston Magpies Ladies finally returned to the form they had shown in the first half of the season when they took on third-placed Horsham.

Harleston Magpies Ladies 1, Horsham 0

Harleston Magpies Ladies finally returned to the form they had shown in the first half of the season when they took on third-placed Horsham.

Whilst Magpies have struggled in their last two League games Horsham have been in good form since the Christmas break so Magpies knew they needed to raise their game.

Frances Sumner returned to the team in midfield and Lucy Hayman in goal adding more experience to the team.

Even in the opening ten minutes Magpies showed more sparkle than they had shown in the previous week and this set a good tempo for the rest of the match.

The forwards were aggressive in closing down defenders and the midfield were dominant for large spells of the match, whilst the defence gave Horsham few chances.

The first half saw Magpies take the game to Horsham with some neat build-up play in midfield where Ellie Bale at right midfield was the pick of a number of impressive performances in midfield.

The Horsham defence were under plenty of pressure in the first half as they tried to clear their lines.

During this spell Magpies won several penalty corners with strikes from Frances Sumner and Emily Wilford being cleared by the Horsham defence.

Horsham had their first chance from a penalty corner on the stroke of half time but the danger was cleared.

Having dominated the first half Magpies knew they had to maintain the same tempo in the second half and Cherry Seaborn's pace was certainly unsettling the Horsham team.

Finally, the breakthrough came after 62 minutes with a pass from Debbie McAllen finding Verity Blyth in the circle who set up Cherry Seaborn to score.

This was nothing less than Magpies deserved but this left Magpies to play out a nervy final eight minutes as Horsham tried to respond and a little more composure on the ball in the final minutes would have helped the nerves.

This result sees Magpies move back into third place ahead of Horsham on goal difference.

Next week Magpies are way to St Albans and they will need to take this form into the rest of the season.