An away game in Salford in difficult conditions awaited the Tornados on a beautiful Sunday Morning. The grass was long, the pitch was large and for most of the girls this was their first experience of 9 a side, agreed between the coaches because both teams had lots of players.

Both teams showed lots of energy and passion and the game was always going to be a close contest. Salford took the lead against the run of play with a clinical finish.

However Haslingden rallied. Layla Ashworth showed excellent concentration playing it to the defenders, lead by Antonia Johannsen-Ward who showed tremendous composure passing up field. Maleah Bennett's left wing wizardry was a joy to behold as she skipped past a couple of tackles to play an inch perfect pass to Orla Brinkley, who finished with a lovely first time shot.

Haslingden kept creating chances and could have had many more goals, with Evie Riley's tireless running upfront.

A couple of crunching challenges took Maleah Bennett and Evie Riley out, but the girls kept pressing for the winning goal running themselves into the ground in the energy sapping long grass.

In the last few minutes Salford played the ball forward in a counter attack and were grateful that the ball fell very kindly to their Striker who finished with a side foot into the goal.

Player of the match was Evie Riley who made great runs all day and but her body on the line receiving a very heavy tackle.

All in all it was an excellent team performance, and the players benefited from playing in such a close game. On another day, the Tornados would have won comfortably.

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