Albion Women boosted their sharpness ahead of the FAWNL Northern Premier Division run-in with a mid-season friendly draw against Cheltenham Town on Sunday afternoon.
Henna Butcher’s opener for the visitors was cancelled out by a Mariam Mahmood half-volley with just minutes left of the game.
Albion are next in action on Sunday, April 21 when they travel to Stoke City for a clash at the Bet365 Stadium.
Head coach Siobhan Hodgetts-Still opted for a strong line-up for the friendly encounter, but gave youth a chance, offering Izzie Whittick her first senior start of the campaign.
The Baggies began an eventful first 20 minutes the brightest, Phoebe Warner and Delphi Cole combined to send the winger into a dangerous position to strike past the goalkeeper but was ruled offside.
Cole then fashioned an opportunity of her own, jinking outside of her defender and firing an inch over the bar.
It then became the turn of the visitors to create chances, Phoebie Poole pounced on Albion's failure to clear their lines – her shot cleared the fences behind the goal.
The Baggies soon hauled the game back under their control and Cole would’ve scored had it not been for a late challenge from Charlotte Buxton who slid in to prevent the striker from latching onto Whittick’s deflected strike.
Cheltenham opened the scoring on the hour mark, as Butcher latched onto a loose pass and slipped the ball past Anna Miller.
But the Baggies earned their draw after Mahmood met a defensive knock-down with a sumptuous dipping volley into the bottom right corner to grab Albion a deserved equaliser.
Albion Women: Jones (Miller HT), Brown, Reynolds, Green (McFarlane HT (Evans 82’)), George, Whittick (Orthodoxou 55’), Evans (Crackle 55’), Warner (Straker 55’), Jhamat, Mahmood (Rabjohn 55’ (Warner 76’)), Cole (Mahmood 70’).