Last-gasp leveller sees Chesterfield Women hold leaders Northampton Town

The result keeps Noon’s side three points behind Northampton who still have a game in hand, but it could have been a much wider gap had Spireites not come back from a 2-0 deficit, Amy Pashley’s stunning free-kick having earlier reduced the arrears in front of a big crowd in Staveley.

And Noon was delighted to have seen his side fight back so strongly.

He said: “To be honest I think we could have won the game. We gifted them two goals, one in each half, and throughout large parts of the game we were the better team.

"We created three or four really good opportunities in the last 20 minutes of the first-half but just couldn’t get the ball in the net, so felt a bit hard done to at half-time to be 1-0 down.

"The reslience in the team to stick together, keep playing and come back and score and then with a minute left on the clock to keep calm, throw bodies on the line and get the ball in th net again was a fantastic feeling.

"We’re the first team to take any points off Northampton and perhaps could have had a few more if we’d done a few things slightly differently.

"The effort the girls put in, all of them, to keep grafting and winning the ball back and create opportunites was absolutely fantastic so credit to every single one of them.”

Chesterfield now prepare to travel to Lincoln United next weekend to face a side lying fourth in the table and seven points behind the Spireites, but with three games in hand.

Noon said: “Lincoln are a good side so it’ll be a tough game and we have to be ready to go and fight, play good football and graft and win the ball back.

"It’ll be tough, we know that, but if we can go there and pick something up it keeps us right in the mix at the top of the table, so we’ll enjoy the good feeling from the Northampton game and prepare for next week.”

Chesterfield’s next home game will be on February 27 against Oughtibridge at Staveley Miners Welfare’s Inkersall Road .