First-half strikes fire us to win at Foxes

Two first-half goals in quick succession helped us return to winning ways in the Women's Super League with a determined 2-1 win at Leicester City on Sunday afternoon.

In the ascendency early on at the King Power Stadium, Cathinka Tandberg - who came so close to the opener on three minutes - poked home 12 minutes later before Olivia Holdt made it two in six first-half minutes with an exquisite chipped finish to score in consecutive WSL games.

The home side responded well to falling behind and piled on the pressure heading into the interval which saw Sam Tierney halve the deficit five minutes shy of half-time to set up a tense second period. 

However, some committed defensive work - inspired by the impressive Clare Hunt and the returning Ashleigh Neville off the bench in the second half - ensured the Foxes efforts were futile to maintain our unbeaten league record over Leicester and register back-to-back away wins in the division.

Despite finding ourselves two goals to the good by the midpoint in the first half, it was arguably the hosts that started on the front foot under the sun at King Power but they were unable to test Lize Kop in between the sticks. Although we had a great chance to open the scoring after just three minutes when Tandberg’s downward header at the back post well-saved by Janina Leitzig after a lovely cross from Bethany England but, 10 minutes later, our number 19 was on hand to break the deadlock. Jess Naz’s low cross from the right was partially cleared to Tandberg just inside the box and her poked effort took a slight deflection before eventually finding the back of the net.

Then, six minutes later, we doubled our lead and it was a sublime finish from Holdt. It all started with a lovely, weighted pass from Eveliina Summanen just outside the centre circle to set the forward through one-on-one and, as she entered the box, she showed complete composure to scoop the ball over Leitzing and just under the crossbar. Leicester responded well afterwards, former Spur Asmita Ale directing a shot straight into the hands of Kop before Julie Thibaud guided a header wide from a corner.

The hosts managed to pull a goal back with five minutes left in the first half, Tierney firing home into the roof of the net from close range after we failed to clear a low cross. While the momentum would have been in the favour of the Foxes after the restart, we had an early opportunity to reinstate our two-goal lead just seconds into the second period but Tandberg could only direct an effort with the outside of her foot into the side-netting.

Naz saw a half-volley from the edge of the box pushed away by Leitzig and a header from Tandberg landed on top of the netting while, at the other end, Clare Hunt produced a number of key blocks, first denying Janince Cayman from inside the box before getting in front of Sari Kees’ shot from outside the box as Leicester pushed for an equaliser. And they maintained this tempo into the closing stages of the contest but we defended resolutely to limit the home side to very few chances. Substitute Jutta Rantala’s left-footed strike from the edge of the box went over the bar was the only notable chance in the final minute of normal time, as we held on to make it nine points out of 12 in the WSL and lift us to fourth in the current standings.

Match data

Goals: Leicester - Tierney 40; Spurs - Tandberg 15, Holdt 21.

Yellow cards: Leicester - McLoughlin 33, Cain 50; Spurs - Summanen 50, Ahtinen 63, Hunt 85.

Referee: Harrison Blair.

Venue: King Power Stadium.

Weather: Sunny, 14 degrees.

Attendance: To follow...