Manchester United Women beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 to regain their second place in the Women’s Super League behind leaders Chelsea.
Marc Skinner’s side started brightly with the ball and were sharp from the very front as Elisabeth Terland put Spurs’ goalkeeper Lize Kop under early pressure with some excellent pressing.
The Red Devils did not need to wait long to get their noses in front after just six minutes Terland volleyed home from close-range from a Jayde Riviere cross.
It was the Norwegian’s sixth goal versus the North Londoners in her WSL career.
Phallon Tullis-Joyce was first called into action after 16 minutes when she dealt well with a Spurs free kick and plucked it out of the air.
United were all over the Londoners in the first half an hour however, and almost made them pay for some careless playing out from the back. Hinata Miyazawa intercepted the ball outside the box from a poor kick from the home side’s keeper, but she could not get a shot off on goal to punish them.
Spurs did have their first shot in anger just before the 30th minute mark when good work by Jess Naz eventually resulted in Hayley Raso shooting from distance, only to be well stopped by United’s in-form keeper.
The visitors immediately responded and Miyazawa fired from distance but it did not threaten Kop’s goal.
On 36 minutes, the Red Devils were inches from their second when Ella Toone dug the ball out with her right boot but her curling effort from outside the box glanced off the crossbar.
The home side could not live with United’s high press and the energetic Miyazawa picked the Tottenham defender’s pocket and played in Terland, who should have done better with her tame effort on goal.
The half-time whistle blew with Skinner’s complaint only being how his team were not further in front.
Spurs started the second half in much better fashion and pegged the away side back in their own half but could not create any sort of troubling effort to Tullis-Joyce’s goal.
It was United who had the first real chance of the second half as Dominique Janssen fired a fierce effort just wide of the post.
The away side almost scored their second when good work from Toone resulted in a ball across the box that rebounded off of Terland when she maybe could have controlled it better. It went harmlessly through to the Spurs’ keeper.
Tottenham kept hold of the majority of possession but could barely threaten the United goal. There only real effort of note arriving when Naz had a tame effort easily stopped by Tullis-Joyce.
On 76 minutes the Tottenham captain Beth England headed well over the bar as Spurs were finding it hard work to break down a resolute United defence.
The away side were disappointed to see six minutes of injury time added on but they remained steadfast in their defensive duties and kept Spurs at bay with relative ease.
The full time whistle blew and United now have a five point cushion ahead of Manchester City as they dream of Champions League football after their fifth consecutive WSL victory.
Featured image James Fearn via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
