Poor first-half proves key as Chesterfield Women FC draw with Oughtibridge

Amy Pashley’s 40-yard free-kick rescued a point for Spireites in the second-half in a match played at Shirebrook Academy, Oughtibridge also having a player sent off in the second period.

The result leaves Chesterfield two points behind leaders Northampton who have two games in hand, the Spireites having seven games left to play in order to try and overhaul their fellow title challengers, with Mansfield Town also breathing down their necks.

Noon said afterwards: “The standards weren’t good enough in the first-half. The players probably thought that with us being second in the league and Oughtibridge being a few places below us that it would be an easy game, but in this league it doesn’t work like that.

"We weren’t at the races and allowed them to get a goal which shouldn’t be going in and then they made it very difficult for us to break them down in the second-half.

"They had a player sent off but I don’t really think we made the most of it if I’m honest as we didn’t really create enough opportunities until the last ten or 15 minutes when the players really did turn it on and fair play to them.

"We must have created three or four really good opportunities but just couldn’t find that second goal.

"So nobody’s really happy with a point and we’re all a bit dejected but we’ve got to get ourselves together and get ourselves prepared for Rise Park away in a couple of weeks’ time.”

After Pashley’s goal lifted the team, Noon felt a winner was inevitable given the pressure that followed but that ultimately they needed more time.

He added: “Once we scored we felt like it would be an onslaught and it was, with attack after attack, but I think the goal probably came a little bit too late because if we’d scored it ten or 15 minutes earlier it might have been a different story.

"But we need to go to Rise Park and win as we’ve drawn the last two games and we need to win if we want to stay in the top part of the table.

"We’ve got two weeks of training where we can knuckle down.”