Brighouse Town Women to face Leeds United in in cup final after Altofts victory

Altofts play two divisions below Brighouse but there was nothing to separate the two teams in the goalless first half.

Brighouse went into the game having scored 85 goals this season but they couldn’t find a way through a resolute home defence.

Amy Woodruft came closest to breaking the deadlock with a couple of half chances but was denied by the Altofts’ goalkeeper.

Altofts flashed a shot whistling by goalkeeper Imogen Maguire’s post but that was the closest they came to a goal during the 90 minutes.

Rob Mitchell made a few tactical changes at half-time and his team were 3-0 up inside 10 minutes of the restart.

Danielle Whitham hit a thunderbolt from 35 yards after 47 minutes against the crossbar and Drew Greene knocked in the rebound to open the scoring.

Three minutes later it was 2-0 when Leah Embley’s effort from the edge of the box struck the right post and fell to Greene again to add her second from close range.

After 55 minutes it was 3-0 when right back Kayleigh Bamforth hit a delightful chip beyond the goalkeeper from the edge of the box.

The third goal sparked a raft of substitutions with one of them – Lucy Sowerby – adding a fourth on 70 minutes following a neat interchange with Greene.

The one blot of the day was a nasty looking injury to Ellie White on her first game back from a knee injury, which meant Brighouse had 10 players for the final few minutes.

After the game Mitchell said: “Credit to Altofts Ladies because they made if very difficult for us to create many chances in the first half.

“Danielle Whitham was magnificent all game and it was fitting that she should have had the shot which led to our opener.

“We know the final against Leeds United will be a real challenge but we’ve got some big league games first so that will be our immediate focus.”