Alnwick Town Women draw away at Harrogate as women's football goes from strength to strength

Action from Alnwick Town Women's match against Harrogate Town. Picture: John V Mason

Their goals came from Katie Ellwood, her sixth after five games in all competitions, and the equaliser from Georgia Thompson, her second of the season, to rescue a point in a game Alnwick will think they should have won.

Alnwick had some chances to score early in the game, but Harrogate’s keeper, Claudia Sandford, was equal to them.

The home team took the lead in the 31st minute, Annie Smith scoring against her former club, with Harrogate going in at half time ahead.

Ellwood brought the two teams level after 51 minutes before Harrogate regained the lead with a headed goal following a corner kick.

Thompson grabbed the equaliser in the 87th minute to bring the two teams level again.

Harrogate defended well and Alnwick showed great determination to fight back for a share of the points. The result saw Harrogate claim their first point of the season, after losing their previous two games 2-1.

Alnwick are back on the road on Sunday when they travel to Spennymoor Town Ladies.

Morpeth Town have also started a ladies team, juniors chairman Paul Barwick saying: “We wanted to create a women’s team for two reasons.

“Firstly, it was long overdue as there was no football offering in Morpeth for women. And secondly, we needed to create a pathway into adult female football for our increasing number of junior girls members, some of whom are approaching their final seasons in youth football.

“We’re delighted with what we’ve achieved over the summer. From a speculative open session at the end of May, we now have a squad of 21 players with more wanting to join, plus a regular participation group of around a dozen that come along and train for exercise/fun/social reasons. I can only see this going from strength to strength.”

The team started with a 13-0 win against a short-staffed Ashington team before a closely fought match against Gosforth Bohemians that saw Town leading 4-0 thanks to a quadruple from Orla Callaghan. The visitors fought their way back to 4-4, only for Callaghan to come back off the bench to earn a 6-4 win.