Reds send out message to league by holding champs

LEAH Galton’s equaliser gave United a hard-earned point against reigning Women’s Super League champions Chelsea at Leigh Sports Village.

The Londoners led for the majority of the contest as Sam Kerr netted her second goal for the club, but the Reds responded strongly in the second half to claim a share of the spoils.

Galton came close to opening the scoring for United with just five minutes gone when her effort from outside the box drifted just wide.

Chelsea made their dominance count by opening the scoring after 25 minutes when Maren Mjelde put Fran Kirby in down the right and her dangerous low cross was turned in by Kerr from close range.

But United’s second-half improvement was finally rewarded with 11 minutes left when Jackie Groenen timed her cross to give Galton a tap-in at the far post and earn a point for the hosts.

“It sets us in good stead for the rest of the season and I think now - especially next week, going into Birmingham - we take the confidence from this game into that game,” said Galton. “It gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season because I think you always want to have a good first game. It’s going to be hard after six months out and we’ve been working really hard as a squad and I think it’s a credit to the team how hard we worked over the period of lockdown.”

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