Feds get better of Chorley Ladies late on

Visitors Chorley found their feet early in the game, and set the tempo, 
with Maddy Cullin having a lot of joy down the left-hand side.

But despite her prominence, a couple of her crosses just evaded forward Vicky Coope in the centre.

Chorley restricted the Feds to a handful of long-range efforts during the opening exchanges, which keeper Meghan Pope dealt with comfortably.

But Feds had the first real opportunity to open the scoring.

A corner was whipped in at the near post, where Lee flicked the ball on to Chorley’s crossbar.

Feds then had a few more chances with shots flying in from outside of the area, but Lizzie White and Kerry Nickson did really well to thwart any danger.

The game was pretty open, with both sides playing attractive football, and Chorley sticking to their defensive responsibilities across the park.

In the second half, Jodie Pilling came on for Demi Devereaux and Rachel Wood came on for Georgia Walmsley.

Wood added pace to the left-hand side, and she immediately made an impact with a brilliant cross into the box, which Pilling almost got a toe to.

Chorley were continuing to battle all over the park, with Topping and Mitchell both getting stuck in and putting in some brilliant challenges. Chorley were so close to taking the lead just 10 minutes before the end.

Pilling got played in by Walker and twisted away from her marker 30 yards out, before bending a shot towards 
goal.

However, the powerful effort thumped across the crossbar, and was cleared to safety., a wonderful effort by the young player.

With five minutes remaining, Feds took the lead with what proved to be the winning goal.

The lively Lee wriggled into the box before being tripped by White.

The penalty was dispatched by Sasha Rowe and this ultimately gave the league leaders the three points.

Feds manager Fran Alonso said: “Chorley proved to be a very tough team to beat, they defended very well for 90 minutes. We had many chances in the first half but their keeper or their brave defending kept us out.”