Lady Imps 1 Wednesday 0

The Lady Imps won a hard-fought and very difficult local derby match against Sheffield Wednesday by a solitary goal to none on Sunday – this win sees Lincoln close the gap between themselves and table-toppers Nottingham Forest to seven points.

A 39th minute Jodie Snelson header from an inswinging Leandra Little free kick was enough to give Lincoln all three points on the day.

Both sides enjoyed periods where they dominated this toe-to-toe clash – Lincoln spent much of the first half attacking the Wednesday box and applying most of the pressure. Imps striker Stacey Aisthorpe wasn’t able to capitalise on a goalkeeping error which left the goalmouth gaping, and Snelson had two opportunities to slot which went begging early on.

But Snelson eventually reaped her just reward when City right back Little swung the ball in from her 35 yard free kick – Snelson rushed into the middle of the box and cleverly headed the ball over the advancing Owls keeper, who had no choice but to come off her line to challenge.

Sheffield pulled out all the stops in the second half and had Lincoln on the back foot for much of the final 45 minutes – there were three goalmouth scrambles where the Imps were able to clear their lines, but the closest the Owls came to registering their name on the scoresheet was when Rachel Skeemer’s head flew inches wide of a hard cross, which would surely have hit the back of the net had she connected, and a free kick in injury time, taken just outside the area, that curved over the defensive wall and dipped hard to be on target under the bar – but Lincoln goalie Kay Hawke brought off a spectacular save to tip the ball over the woodwork and earn her side the extra two points they needed so much to keep the top of the WPL Northern table within sight, and their title hopes very much alive.

‘This was a much better performance [than last week] from our players,’ exclaimed delighted Lady Imps Chairman Geoff Adams. ‘As I thought they would be, Sheffield Wednesday are a vastly improved side from when we played them away at the beginning of the season. In true local derby fashion, they battled for everything, but so did we and I think we beat a very good side this afternoon. We were pretty much on top of them in the first half but when they came at us in the second half it took everything we had to keep them out, but even then we had a couple of chances on the break to wrap things up which we didn’t take. All credit to Sheffield Wednesday, we knew we had been in a game today, but I’m really pleased to see the way our players were able to raise the tempo and knuckle down to win this match – it bodes well for us after Christmas and for our run-in to the end of the season’ he said.