In a repeat of last season’s FA Cup third round qualifying tie, Chesterfield FC Women slipped to a 3-2 defeat against Bradford City Women in a pre-season friendly at Debdale Park.
Bradford started brightly, moving the ball extremely quickly through the thirds, giving the Chesterfield defence a lot to think about.
Following a quick break down the left-hand side, a shot across Tatarczuk’s goal just found the bottom corner to give the Bantams the lead after just five minutes.
As the half wore on, Chesterfield started to dominate the play a lot more than the early stages and were rewarded with a good spell of pressure when Trialist A’s long-range effort was fumbled by the Bradford keeper, the ball squirmed out of the keeper’s hands and crossed the line for the equaliser.
Buoyed by scoring, Chesterfield continued to exert the pressure and were rewarded by another goal courtesy of Trialist A’s second of the day, again a shot from distance that nestled into the bottom corner to put the Spireites ahead.
The second half started in much the same vein as the first half, a real end-to-end, entertaining game. Chesterfield defended well to nullify any Bradford pressure with some excellent work from new signings Ashtei and Nowell.
Several changes were made to both sides, including 16-year-old substitute goalkeeper McCrory, whose impact on the game at such a young age was extremely impressive.
As the half wore on, Bradford had a speculative shot from distance that just crept over the head of McCroy and into the net to bring the scores level at 2-2.
As the game seemed to be petering out for a draw, Bradford won a late corner. After a scramble in the box, the striker just managed to divert the ball past the keeper to secure a late winner for the visitors.
The referee’s whistle blew to bring an extremely competitive game to a close, seeing the Spireites slip to a perhaps undeserved narrow defeat.
Chesterfield manager Pete Jarvis will be pleased with the performance against a very good Bradford City side.
It was extremely pleasing to see some players make the step up from both the Community Trust and Development team, showing what an exciting pool of talent is available at the first-team’s disposal.
Spireites: Tatarczuk, Nowell, Ashtei, McConnell, Fidler, Staples, Trialist B, Argou, Porritt, Marshall, Trialist A
Subs: McCrory, Hulme, Dhillon, Brodick
