news-engine

Huddersfield Town Women relish Northern Premier Division challenge ahead of season opener Glen Preston's double winners are looking to get off to a good start when they travel to Norwich on Sunday Huddersfield Town Women begin their FAWNL Northern Premier Division campaign on Sunday with the long trip to fellow promoted side Norwich City. Town return to the third tier for the first time since relegation in 2024 after winning Division One North last season. Despite their newcomer status, manager Glen Preston is refusing to limit his side’s ambitions in 2026/27. He told We Are Terriers: “It’s going to be a much tougher season but I’m not putting a ceiling on what we can achieve. “I’d like to think the squad have learned a lot from last year and developed a winning mentality, so now we’ll see if we can handle it.” Last season, Town played two sides from the Northern Premier Division in cup competitions. They beat Loughborough 3-2, but lost 6-0 to eventual champions Burnley. “It was an eye-opener into what the challenge of this league will be,” Preston recalled. “We’re under no illusions as to what the reality of this step-up is. “We know it’s a really high standard and tier three is getting more and more professional every single year, and that was reflected more so in the Burnley game. “With the Loughborough game, I thought we looked comfortable and raced into a 3-0 lead. But they came back into it and showed that at this level if you give the opposition even a sniff, they’ll take it and punish you for your mistakes.” Town have only made three signings so far this summer. Tamira Livingston and Jess Lightfoot joined permanently after playing huge roles last season on loan from Manchester United and Everton, respectively. Although Town finished as top scorers in the league, Preston has bolstered his attacking options further by signing Aimee Kelly from Burnley. Kelly scored 12 times last term as the Clarets stormed to the league title. He said: “Aimee’s absolute class. She’s already won the league with Burnley and played full-time football, including for Everton in the WSL. “She’s high quality and pacey. Her technical ability is fantastic and she sees the game before anyone else. She’s scored in all but one of our pre-season games so she’s hit the ground running. Hopefully that’ll continue into the season. “Off the pitch she’s a great character. She’s demanding and sets the standard so everyone else has to come with her and I think that can only be a good thing.” But the work for this summer began much earlier when the club brought in players such as Bethan Davies, Rhema Lord-Mears and Laura Elford, all of whom had played at higher levels. Preston explained: “Last year we didn’t have much time to bring the squad together and we had to do a lot of convincing to get some of these players to drop down. They could have easily gone to clubs of a higher stature. “We had to sell the club to them and the vision Kevin [Nagle] and David [Threlfall-Sykes] had for the project because it was an exciting one. That let us get the best in class in so many positions. “We also made big signings in January with Tamira, Jess and Neve [Birtwistle]. It’s no surprise that when those three came in we pretty much went the rest of the season unbeaten. “Because of that, I didn’t feel we needed to go out this summer and get five or six players because we’ve come up with what we already believe is a strong squad — certainly good enough to compete at this level. “So this year has just been about adding those pieces to the jigsaw puzzle. We’re hoping to announce one, maybe two more signings in the coming days but the squad is in a much healthier place with great depth. “We’re going to need that because we’re aware of the reality of the season ahead and the test that faces us. We’re going to need that extra quality.” Captain Beth Stanfield is also raring to face the new challenges head-on, even suggesting the league could be wide open. She told We Are Terriers: “The minimum aim is obviously to stay in the league, but we all want to aim higher than that. “With Burnley and Wolves out of this league I really feel like it could be anyone’s. It’s wide open. I don’t think there’s any clear team that is definitely going to win the league. No game’s going to be easy. Every one will offer so many different challenges. “We’re looking forward to potentially having more freedom to play our way. But we also know teams will do their homework and try to nullify us in different ways than we’ve experienced before. It’ll just be different. “Teams may be more open and let us be more expansive but we also need to be wary of better teams and their threats, too.” Town’s first game sees them go toe-to-toe with Norwich City. The squad will travel down to Norfolk the night before — a common occurrence in the men’s game but a new experience for Town Women, who rarely play teams from the far reaches of the country. It’s something both Preston and Stanfield believe is the next in a long line of new experiences awaiting them. Preston said: “It’s a really exciting fixture for us. For the majority of the players it’s the first time we’ll have ever stayed over for a game. It’s got that professional edge to it. We’ve prepared as best we can but Norwich are a club we can’t really get eyes on because we haven’t seen much of the southern leagues. “We know they’re a club with massive ambitions to go up again. They’ve set their stall out saying they want back-to-back promotions and they’ve been given the resources and tools to try to achieve that. “They’ve signed some top-quality players so it’ll be a tough challenge. But anything can happen on the opening day of the season.” While the overnight stay could offer a good opportunity for team bonding, Stanfield believes the squad’s strength stems from continuity instead. She added: “It’s going to be a new experience with us going down on Saturday because we don’t get many opportunities to do so, unless we get a big cup draw somewhere, so it’ll be nice for team bonding. “But there haven’t been many new players to integrate into the squad because Tamira [Livingston] and Jess [Lightfoot] were here on loan last season. Only Aimee Kelly is new to the squad so it’s been really seamless in that regard — not having loads of new people learning how we play. “We’ve had six or seven weeks. It’s been tough and nobody really likes pre-season but we’re all raring to go now.” Town kick off their season away at Norwich on Sunday, 16 August, before facing Loughborough in their first home game of the season at the Accu Stadium on 23 August.