Moors Ladies slipped to their first home defeat of the season on Sunday as league-leaders Chester-le-Street Town continued their impressive form at The Brewery Field.
Having been knocked out of the Women’s FA Cup, Brent Smithson’s side were hoping for a positive reaction as they returned to NERWFL Premier Division action.
However, visiting Town showed their teeth from the first whistle and Moors keeper Sophie Miller pulled off an excellent save to prevent them going in front inside six minutes.
Miller was helpless to stop them taking the lead four minutes later though, as they converted from a well delivered corner to make good on their positive start.
A scrappy encounter developed after that with both sides battling to assert their authority, though Moors did come close when Hannah Knox whipped a dangerous free kick into the area which Chester-le-Street did well to clear.
That gave Moors a lift and they grabbed the leveller on 34 minutes. Young forward Lily Jackson pressed high up the pitch and her pressure paid off as she closed down the visiting goalkeeper and charged down a clearance into the net for 1-1.
Caitlin Bates almost announced her return to The Brewery Field in fine style early in the second half with a testing free kick which was cleared behind from a corner, from which Moors saw an effort cleared off the line.
However, Chester-le-Street showed their quality again just before the hour mark when they stole forward to retake the lead and put Moors back on the back foot.
Moors kept on going and could have equalised again on 71 minutes when Jackson was brought down as she raced clear, and Alex Saunders’ resultant free kick was superbly tipped over the bar by the keeper.
As Smithson’s side pressed to find the goal they needed, it was always going to allow space for the visitors to counter-attack and they took one of those opportunities to score a third goal on 79 minutes and effectively clinch the points.
Knox again tried her luck with another free kick in the final minute but this time her effort flashed just over the bar as the visitors held on to consolidate their position at the top of the table.
“Chester-le-Street Town are top of the league for a reason – they’re a good team,” Smithson admitted afterwards.
“We battled well enough, but I didn’t think we were our ourselves today in terms of winning those first and second balls, and you can’t give a team like Chester-le-Street an easy ride.
“We have to go away and look at what we need to do better in the games we’ve got coming up because that wasn’t really good enough.”
Full Time: Moors 1 Chester-le-Street Town 3
Moors: Miller, Knox, Drinkald, Newton, Richardson, Doogan, Jackson, Hemmingway, Gray, Saunders, Dawson.
Subs: C Colledge, Vasey, Bates, Elliott.
Attendance: 142
