Brighton & Hove Albion Ladies moved to the top of The FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division as they edged past West Ham 1-0.
That was enough for them to leapfrog Cardiff City, whose clash with C&K Basildon was postponed.
Brighton had their chances in the first half but couldn’t find a way through, with Kirsty Barton hitting a post after working an opening, while Jay Blackie missed an open goal when she lost her footing in the box.
The FA Women's Premier League
Sunday 22 November 2015
Northern Division Table, click here
Southern Division Table, click here
Barton hit the woodwork a second time after the break, with her searing effort coming back off the crossbar, but in the end Blackie popped up for the key goal.
With quarter of an hour remaining Deanna Cooper’s cross from deep caused West Ham all sorts of problems, and Blackie got enough on it to steer the ball home.
West Ham had shown little in attack and could not find a way back into the game as Brighton held on for the win to move two points clear at the top of the table.
Charlton Athletic stayed in touch with the upper reaches of the table in third as they got the better of Queens Park Rangers winning 2-1. Goals either side of half-time from Kit Graham and Charley Clifford put Charlton in control, and despite Danielle Puddefoot pulling one back late on, QPR could not get through.
Elsewhere Coventry City and Portsmouth stayed level on points in fourth and fifth as they both won 4-0, at Lewes and Tottenham respectively.
Preston North End hammered Huddersfield Town 6-0 to stay in contention towards the top of the Women’s Premier League Northern Division, thanks to a hat-trick from Lagan Makin.
Preston currently lie fifth in the league with 20 points, six off top spot, but have two games in hand on Nottingham Forest, whose match at Newcastle was postponed.
It took Preston half an hour to break the deadlock, Makin setting up Natasha Flint with a cross to the back post. Makin went from provider to scorer late in the first half as the defence backed off and she fired home from outside the box to make it 2-0 at the break.
The second half was one-way traffic, with Gemma Watson adding the third on 50 minutes as she reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box.
Five minutes later Makin was in again with a first time volley at the back post to make it 4-0 to the home side. With just over an hour gone Flint was brought down in the box, and Charlotte Farrell stepped up to steer it home.
And there was still time for Makin to complete her hat-trick with ten minutes remaining after she was put through and struck with enough power to beat the despairing efforts of the keeper.
Elsewhere Stoke City moved to within a point of Forest with a 5-1 success at home to third place Derby.
Stoke had actually trailed 1-0 early on but responded to go 2-1 ahead by half-time before adding three more in the second half.
