Derby County Women were unable to pick up back-to-back wins in the FA Women's National League Northern Premier Division for the first time this season on Wednesday night as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Stoke City.
Eleanor Ashton's second goal in as many games, a deflected strike from the edge of the penalty area, had the Ewes a goal to the good at the break.
However, Saffron Jordan and Shannon Stamps scored two goals in two minutes early in the second half to turn the game on its head and leave Sam Griffiths' side still looking for their first home win of the campaign.
Derby are back on the road on Sunday when they travel to Huddersfield Town (2pm kick-off) for their third league run-out of the week.“A Draw Probably Would Have Been Fair” - Griffiths
Manager Sam Griffiths was quick to admit she was 'not massively disappointed’ with the way her side performed despite tasting defeat against the Potters.
Griffiths felt that a draw would have been a fair result at the Don Amott Arena, but ultimately Derby were undone by Stoke’s quickfire double just before the hour mark.
Despite seeing the opportunity to get their first home win of the 2023/24 season pass them by, Griffiths says the full focus is now on Sunday’s trip to Huddersfield.
She said: “I thought it was a pretty evenly matched game in the first half. There were a lot of one-on-one battles and turnovers and we were pleased to go in 1-0 up at the break.
“Stoke came out a bit more on the front foot in the second half, which you expect as they were behind, and they got the two goals which came from a couple of individual errors.
“I am not massively disappointed with the performance and we just need to look forward now and prepare for another big game on Sunday at Huddersfield. This is a tough league, we know that, and there are no easy matches.”
She added: “I thought a draw would possibly have been fair. We had some pressure near the end but we weren’t able to get the goal we wanted.”
“Quick Turnaround Can't Be Used As An Excuse” - Steggles
Charlotte Steggles was quick to stress that Derby couldn’t use tiredness as an excuse for their home defeat.
After an emotionally-charged 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, the Ewes were unable to record back-to-back league wins for the first time this term despite taking the lead in the opening 45 minutes.
Steggles made it very clear that the quick turnaround, with the side playing their first midweek game of the campaign, was not the reason for missing out on all three points.
She said: “It is a tough result to take for us and across the board I think we all had some individual errors and mistakes. We are a team and it is down to all of us.
“It has ended up costing us and we didn’t get the result we wanted, especially after an emotional win at Forest on Sunday.
“I don’t think we can say the quick turnaround from Sunday to Wednesday as an excuse as Stoke were in the same position as us; we just weren’t good enough on the day.
“We had chances but didn’t take them and Stoke took theirs.”
She concluded: “Our focus now is on Sunday’s game at Huddersfield. We’ll go back to the drawing board, look where we went wrong in this one and how we can get a win to bounce back.”