Chesterfield FC Women travelled to Cleethorpes this afternoon to take on Grimsby Town at Blundell Park, slipping to a 1-0 defeat.
The Spireites started off well, enjoying plenty of possession and causing problems for the home side in the opening ten minutes.
Steph O’Brien came closest to opening the scoring, but her free-kick from 25 yards dipped just over the bar.
Grimsby started to settle into the game and pushed forward, but solid defending and a great save from Rhianne Carroll made sure the scoreline remained 0-0.
Chesterfield finished the half with great passages of forward play, with Lucy Graham and Faye Delaney linking up well, but the Grimsby defence was equal to the Spireites’ efforts, leaving it all square at the interval.
Both teams started off brightly in the second half with the game being end-to-end in just the opening minute of the half.
However, despite the Spireites starting to enjoy possession, Grimsby scored in the 64th minute with their first real chance of the game.
The Spireites used this to fuel them going forward and created more chances of their own. Maddie Watkinson had a shot on goal in the 72nd minute, following a brilliant ball from Millie Pinkney, but the shot was gathered well by the keeper.
Just a few minutes later, Megan Clarkson came close with a brilliant free-kick from around 30 yards out, but her effort hit the bar.
At the other end, Carroll made a brilliantly timed tackle to deny a second Grimsby goal, as their striker found herself in a one-on-one with the Spireites keeper.
Chesterfield came agonisingly close to equalising in the thirdcminute of stoppage time, when Clarkson headed a corner towards goal, but it was cleared off the line and scrambled away by the home side.
Spireites: Carroll, Breeze, Clarkson, Francis, Townsend, Lilleyman (Hulme 32), Pinkney, O’Brien, Watkinson (Graham 81), Graham (Lee 67), Delaney
