DROITWICH SPA Ladies moved up to third in the West Midlands Regional League Division One (South) table after coming from behind to claim a narrow 5-3 victory over second place Solihull Ladies.
Two goals from April Polden and one each for Charleigh Stanaway, Lindsey Jones and Ellie Gerhold secured the win for Droitwich.
Despite a lacklustre start to the game, Droitwich took the lead after 12 minutes when Stanaway netted her first goal of the season after stabbing home from close range following a goal mouth scramble.
Solihull equalised shortly after before Droitwich took the lead once again after Polden produced a wonderful finish after some good work by her strike partner Gerhold.
Following some poor defensive play from a corner, Solihull equalised on the stroke of half time to take the teams into the break at 2-2.
Five minutes after the interval, Droitwich fell behind for the first time in the game after conceding once again from a corner.
This prompted a change in shape by Droitwich manager Ian Fry and it began to pay dividends when Jones made it 3-3 on 65 minutes after firing past the Solihull keeper into the far corner.
Droitwich continued to pile on the pressure and took the lead for the third time as Polden drifted inside from the right before lashing home.
The points were sealed nine minutes from the end as Gerhold netted her second goal of the game – and 13th of the season – after collecting Melissa Curnock’s throughball before shrugging off her marker and stabbing the ball past the advancing Solihull keeper.
Following the game, Fry said: “In the first half we were poor. However, in the second half after going behind my girls showed fantastic spirit and worked incredibly hard to get themselves back into the game.
“Our finishing was superb and ultimately, although we weren’t good today, the girls deserved the three points.”
