Tameside United Ladies played out a 2-1 to top side Langho Ladies FC, in a closely fought match in Lancashire.

The trip was Tameside's longest away trip of the season, with Salford being promoted and Barr Hill Ladies folding, Langho is one of the favourites to win the league this season given their 3rd place finish last season.

The ladies were slow out the blocks as Langho looked to get the ball into the wingers early, pushing the ball forward and causing problems down the wings.

Both fullbacks were called into action early doors to prevent an opening goal for Langho and Kay had to replaced ten minutes in as she blocked a shot with her face ten yards out from goal.

Tameside reset and started pressing higher up the pitch, looking to win the ball back in the Langho half, the pressure paid off as Nicole Denton got the opening goal on 30 minutes rounding the keeper and putting the goal in the net.

Tameside defended well, with Rhiannon Lavis a constant threat down the right side of the pitch, Tameside were however not able to translate that into a goal.

A long period of extra time, in which Langho got their equalised. The striker for Langho looked a few yards offside and as she squared the ball to the winger they were able to draw level just before half time.

Half Time 1-1, the Tameside Keeper Deana had been the busier of the two Goalies but Tameside were gutted to be coming in at half time level.

Second half and it was possibly our poorest 10 minute spell in the game. The ladies struggled to get back the rhythm of their game and after three big saves from Deana Pickles, Langho got the goal to put them ahead on 52 minutes.

Tameside were struggling to get Rhiannon back on the ball, with Isabel Prince putting the ball in behind for forward runners, the Langho team defended well getting blocks on shots from Nicole and Lucy Birkhead to prevent us getting an equaliser.

Nicole Denton went down under the challenge from the keeper who didn't get anything on the ball, the referee waved away the appeals and then sent Nicole into the Sin Bin for ten minutes for dissent.

Tameside weathered the ten minutes at ten minutes, and at 80 minutes looked to have the equaliser but the ball didn't have enough pace on it as it appeared the Langho defender cleared it off the line. How close it was to crossing the line was difficult to tell with the massive slant on the pitch.

Going into the last ten minutes it was all Tameside United as the ladies threw everything at the Langho goal, Lucy coming closer in the final few minutes at the near post and several shots from the forward players just going wide.

An incident in the final five minutes with Kay tangling with the winger from Langho has gone on record and the FA will be investigating the comments made to the Centre Back from the Langho winger put a dampener on the game as the referee stated he hadn't heard the comments.

Langho had the final say as they put Deana Pickles under pressure but two massive stops from the Keeper kept Tameside in the game.

Full Time 2-1 disappointing to lose the encounter give as a team we had the opportunities to come away with a point, but credit to the Langho Ladies team who showed why they are one of the front runners in the league. Something Tameside will try and rectify when they make the journey to Ewen Fields later in the season.