It has been a challenging and tough year for many this year, but Hull City Ladies are looking forward to some normality when the FA Women’s National League starts this Sunday against Middlesbrough Women Away.

Hull City Ladies have a tough start to the season, but everyone is eagerly awaiting the start of the season.

The season gets underway away at Middlesbrough Women FC at Bedford Terrace, the home of Billingham Town. The 1st home game at Haworth Park is Sunderland Ladies on Sunday 27th September, 2 pm KO, then the Tigresses take on Huddersfield Town Women 3 days later on Wednesday 30th September, 7.45pm KO, with free tickets for NHS staff. Come and support the Tigresses away and home at Haworth Park and have a safe, friendly, and fun day. Buy yours here!

Form

In five pre-season fixtures, HCL won three pre-season matches, however, the performances in all games were more important according to first-team manager Adi Costello. The Tigresses kicked off pre-season with a 2-0 victory against Wakefield Trinity, their 1st game in 154 days. Then HCL secured back-to-back wins, a 4:1 win against Harrogate Town Ladies, and a 3-1 win against Barnsley Women.

The Tigresses are going into the season on the back of two defeats, after losing 6-1 against a strong Manchester United Women Under 21’s and a 2-1 loss against Brighouse Town Ladies but are remaining positive ahead of the new campaign.

Adi Costello said after the United game: “Even though the result looked like 6-1, that was a good performance, performance is more important than the result, it’s pre-season, we’ve learned a lot today and we can take a lot away from that.

We played a quality side, we played Man United’s development side, there are some international players in the side, they were very very good, we played a good side, in my opinion, we played very well, we’re not going to meet a team like that in our league.”

After Hull City Ladies’ last pre-season game Costello was pleased how pre-season had gone and how he is looking forward to the new season ahead.

“Pre-season is about learning, not just for the players, for the staff as well, we have to learn what’s our best system, what are our best players and what’s the best way of playing and we’ve done that in the last seven weeks, starting all those many moons ago against Wakefield,” said Costello.

Last Outing

The last outing between both teams was November 11th, 2019 as Hull City Ladies were beaten 6-3 in a thriller at the Dransfield Stadium. First-half goals from Tyler Dodds, Emma Brown, and Eleanor Dale were cancelled out by two Tigresses strikes with Katie Thompson and Helen Lynskey replying.

Middlesbrough took the game away from the Tigresses with three goals in 8 second-half minutes before Boro scored an own goal to provide Hull City Ladies with a deserved consolation.

Ones To Watch

New signings Aaliyah Allen and Bethany Padget have impressed in pre-season. Helen Lynskey, Alice Hughes, and Anna Vince have left the club. Whilst the Tigresses have retained a host of key players from last season. Jo Symington captains the club once again. Katie Thompson, Suey Smith, and Emily Smith are ones to watch this season and Rebecca Beech will want to add to her 164 goals in 179 games, this season.

Squad:

1 Abi Wallace, 2 Eden Pedersen, 3 Meg Render, 4 Emma Westmorland, 5 Ellice Jackman, 6 Tillie Oxley, 7 Liberty Bott, 8 Ellie Tanser, 9 Jo Symington, 10 Rachael Ackroyd, 11 Rebecca Beech, 12 Emily Smith, 13 Sharla Cone, 14 Katie Thompson, 15 Suey Smith, 16 Harley Skinner, 17 Mary Lisle, 18 Aaliyah Allen, 19 Bethany Padget, 20 Abbey Frederiksen, 21 Alice Stewart, 22 Jess Burton, 23 Holly Johnson-Collier, 24 Emily Spence, 25 Florence Pegrum, 26 Annabel Williams, 27 Maddie Blundell, 28 Aoife Brannigan, 29 Ace Kelly, 30 Jennifer Randall, 31 Faith Martin, 32 Lily Tankard, 33 Lucy McIntosh, 34 Lucy Warner-Bull, 35 Emma-Leigh Innes, 36 Amy Beech, 37 Scarlet Howard, 38 Tess Kirven, 39 Mollie Reaney, and 40 Megan Cooke.

“The girls are starting to play into a system and starting to believe in each other and starting to trust each other and if you’ve got all those you will start to play decent football, I see a team that is all pulling in the same direction, all with the same belief, all with the same attitude, it’s a positive thing to be back playing football, the girls are desperate to play football,” said Costello.

Key Details

Date/Time: Sunday 20th September, 2 pm.
Venue: Bedford Terrace, Billingham, County Durham, TS23 4AE
Tickets: Buy yours here!

*Written by Alex Robinson

** Photograph by Kevin Greene, Kevin Green Photography