North End’s five match unbeaten run came to an end at the hands of league leaders Sheffield FC Ladies on Sunday afternoon.
PNE didn’t get off to the best of starts when they went 1-0 down early on after Sheffield FC’s Isabella Hayes volleyed past Danielle Brown in the second minute.
The ball came in from the right hand side and Hayes volleyed into the bottom corner from the penalty spot.
It was 2-0 to Sheffield FC four minutes later when a defensive mix-up allowed a corner from the left hand side to go straight in at the near post.
Lynn Goodman whipped the ball in and two PNE defenders both left it to each other, but neither attacked it and the ball sneaked in.
PNE were struggling to get into the game and made a tactical change in the 13th minute as Sophie Jones replaced Natasha Charlesworth with the formation changing to a 4-4-2 system.
The change didn’t stop the onslaught however as Ellie Gilliatt hit the post from long range before Brown produced a great save to deny Suzanne Davies.
Sheffield scored a third in the 37th minute when Hayes added her second of the game when she latched onto a Suzanne Davies through ball despite the appeals for offside from the PNE back four.
The visitors started the second half a lot better than the first and got a goal back within a minute of the restart, Jones latched onto a long ball from Gemma Watson and firing home on the half volley from just outside the area.
Following the goal it was all PNE and they had many near misses as they searched for a second goal before Gemma Watson had a long range effort pushed out for a corner with a fantastic save from Sheffield FC goalkeeper Claire Wallhead.
Unfortunately, the Lilywhites didn’t recover from the early two goals conceded and the game finished with a score of 3-1 to Sheffield FC.
The result means that PNE remain in fourth place on 15 points ahead of their next league game against Newcastle United Women at Bamber Bridge on the 15th December.
PNE lineup: Brown, Taberner, Carroll (Forshaw 45), Walker (c), Stanfield, Charlesworth (Jones 13), Shepherd, Forster, Watson, Savage, Grocott (Ball 45)