LOCAL women’s football returned at the weekend, with most teams having had a four-week break, but the West Riding County League was once again disrupted due to a combination of Cup commitments, match rearrangements and a few waterlogged pitches.

Athletico dominated from the first whistle, in their County Third game at home to Huddersfield Amateur Reserves.

In the first half, Megan Medley scored the first two of her hat-trick, with Sadyha Akhtar scoring the first two of her five of the day, with Rimshah Amin adding another before Jeevan Jawanda scored on her open-age début to make it 6–1 at the break.

The second half saw Athletico taking an opportunity to play out from the back and get more confident in doing so, scoring four more goals for a 10–2 win.

Next week, Athletico visit Queensbury Celtic, who lost at Burley Trojans. There was good play from Queensbury’s Jess Skelding, but it was a 6–0 loss to Troggs, who had Heather Fisher, Mel Elam, Bethan Smith, Naomi Myhill, Hannah Haw and Becky Clark on target.

Tyersal had a good away day at Amaranth Crossgates in County Second. The 2–0 win saw goals from Hayley Robinson and Ella Priestley, with good play from Shelby Robinson.

In County Fourth, Bradford United entertained current leaders Knaresborough Town. They did get some good attacking moves together, but it was not until 68' that they had a decent shot on goal, and eventually ended up on the wrong side of a 12–0 score-line. Bradford United will hope for a better result next Sunday at Field Sports and Social.

Bradford City’s u21s were at home to Pontefract Sports and Social.

Pontefract were first off the mark with an early goal. However an Isma Ahmed brace gave the Bantams a half-time lead. Pontefract’s goalkeeper made some spectacular saves, with City being made to work hard for their 5–1 win, with further goals from Elsie Joyce, Ami Ackroyd and Summer Paley.

In County Premier, Brighouse Sports had a hard-fought game against Leeds United’s U21’s, with Georgia Lane’s first-half strike enough to earn the points.

In a delayed League Cup fixture, Silsden were away at Leeds Medics and Dentists. Silsden put in a good performance, scoring through Poppy Best, and created lots of chances against the Premier Division side, who were made to work hard in the match. But Medics were more clinical and deserved their 4-1 win, and are in the hat for Wednesday night's quarter-final draw.

Some of our local Bradford-area teams were involved in the West Riding County Cup, as the delayed Round-of-16 was completed.

Thackley were hoping to progress at home to Farsley Celtic Women.

There was little to choose between the teams in the first half. Thackley took the lead through skipper Kath Connell, and did well to keep Celts’ Shirley Murphy out of the game. But Farsley’s prolific striker Demi Pringle scored an equaliser shortly afterwards. After going 2–1 down, Thackley still played well, and were still hopeful of a favourable result, with midfielder Sophie Green having a good game. But ten minutes into the second half, Thackley were reduced to ten players for the remainder of the game and the task was made more difficult. Farsley had few clear-cut chances, but eventually scored two late goals to settle the tie, and will host Ossett United in the quarter-finals.

Thackley’s next League opposition, Yorkshire Amateur, were at Skipton.

Skipton Town, despite being unbeaten in League competitions, were aware that they had a hard ask against last season’s League champions, and it was Amateur who got the early lead. A Beth Bancroft penalty made it all-square, but Amateur scored two more before the interval. Amateur held on for a 3–1 win, and are away to Leeds United’s first team.

The day’s results see the end of Bradford teams’ involvement in the County Cup.

In the other two ties, Leeds’ U21’s are away to Brayton Belles, and Brighouse Town Women are at Altofts on 19 February.

Leeds United were involved in FA Cup action, as they entertained Northern Premier Division side Stoke City.

United were losing with less than a minute on the clock, after a deceptive curved shot gave home ’keeper Carrie Simpson no chance. However Leeds were level on 20', and scored two second-half goals to go through to the next round, away to Women’s Super League side Arsenal.

Huddersfield Town lost 4–0 at Championship side Birmingham City.

However there was some local interest in the day’s games, as ex-local player Bex Rayner and Bradford student Mia Enderby helped Sheffield United to a 3–0 victory over Nottingham Forest, and a fourth-round tie at Manchester City on 29 January.

Queensbury Celtic’s u18s were away at North East Leeds, in a re-arranged West Riding Girls League game. It was a real game of two halves, coming in 4-0 down at half-time.

The second half saw Queensbury take the game to NEL and were on the front foot for the whole half, playing some top-drawer passing football and creating tons of chances. Goals from Kashish Pandit, Lily Reidy and Ellie Talbot brought it back to 4–3, but they were unable to get the equaliser before an NEL break sealed a 5–3 win.

Manager Alex Maurice was delighted with the creative play: “we keep improving every game, especially after two months since our last fixture. Some great progress with this group over a few months, and I know they'll soon get the rewards.”

Bradford (Park Avenue) played a mid-week friendly against Farsley Celtic Women. A fairly-even match saw Avenue’s captain Jade Nelson open the scoring, with the Celts levelling it up in the second half.

Avenue return to League action this Sunday, with a Regional Northeast League match at home to current Southern Division leaders Handsworth.