Match Report: York City Ladies 1-3 Hull City Ladies

The Minsterbelles began on the front foot, with a loose ball falling to Abby Parkin inside the area three minutes in, but she got her finishing completely wrong, blazing into Row Z.

York City Ladies continued their winless run at the LNER Community Stadium, falling to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hull City.

The Minsterbelles began on the front foot, with a loose ball falling to Abby Parkin inside the area three minutes in, but she got her finishing completely wrong, blazing into Row Z.

Four minutes later, a chance materialised for Hull, as Liberty Bott tried one from distance - in the end, it was tame and never really troubled the goalkeeper, rolling wide.

The visitors again chose to threaten their opponents, taking advantage of the latter’s poor attempt to clear, and driving the ball into the mixer to Katie Thompson, helped on to her by a clever flick, before she fired into the arms of Becky Sidwell.

Denying Thompson moments earlier, Sidwell was almost caught off guard by a free kick from the Tigresses striker, but thankfully for her, the looping effort towards the empty left side of goal was off the mark.

Hull’s first half chances continued to evolve, through Hope Knight and her corners, one which was narrowly nodded high over the bar by another orange shirt.

Although they had a slow start to the game, the away side really came out the traps after that, as the Minsterbelles watched a speculative chip from Jo Symington drop onto the roof of the net, just inches away from being the deadlock breaker.

The pressure carried on, a miskick from Sidwell kindly gifting the ball to Bott, about 25 yards from goal, but she couldn’t convert, to the relief of the York stopper, and with that, the first 45 minutes were closed off.

The hosts began the second half still yet to find their rhythm, that was until Felicity Jones got in behind and drove forward into the box, before sticking it past Abi Wallace in the visitors net to put the Minsterbelles ahead eight minutes after the restart.

Fired up with confidence, York pushed for a second, as Holly Findlay saw her downward header aimed at the bottom corner, well smothered by the ‘keeper.

A first opportunity since falling behind was awarded to the Tigresses just past the hour mark - a free kick in a very dangerous position was fiercely rocketed past the wall by Thompson, stopped only by a remarkable stretching save from Sidwell.

But six minutes later, they found their equaliser. Hull worked the ball to the edge of the box, for Knight to fire low into the far corner.

Then, with less than fifteen to play, Rachel Ackroyd let fly with an outrageous effort from quite some distance, catching the York ‘keeper off her line as the ball looped into the back of the net, a sucker punch for the home side.

Having flipped the match on its head as it went into the final stages, a decent save was forced out of Sidwell, Emily Smith breaking through, and shooting straight at the stopper’s feet.

However, there was more late drama in injury time, Knight adding a third for Hull, somehow managing to divert the ball over the Minsterbelles’ number one, and home to seal the points for the visitors.