‘Tigresses emerge from Yorkshire classic’ claims Hull City Ladies’ website match report. Spare a thought for Leeds United, who failed to emerge from the match. Where are they now? Still at the Easy Buy Stadium? Sunk in the Humber? You get nowt for being second, and getting nowt isn’t so bad when you feel nowt’s what you deserve, but you can’t emerge from a seven-goal thriller feeling that nothing is a fair reward for your work. The game ended 4-3 on Sunday. Tight contests are fun, when you win them, but battling hard for a defeat feels pants. Each goal took Leeds from leaving with one point to three points, to one point, to no points, to one point, to three points, to one point and back to none again.

Drama is exhausting and Leeds and Hull would likely have kept on tussling had the ref not blown his whistle, but he’s got to at some point and United had fewer goals than their opponents when he did. Division One North feels a bit like that sometimes — one long continuation of the same teams playing each other over and over again, a back and forth of defeats and revenge, a protracted multi-season narrative punctuated by the occasional totting up of points to release just one team from the purgatory.

By rights, Leeds should emerge before Hull City, who as recently as 2022 had their go in the league above, something Leeds have been craving since 2014. But the Tigresses are insistent that next time they have a shot in the Northern Premier they’ll be exiting in the up direction. In January, they appointed Chris Hames as director of women and girls’ football and set a target of becoming a Championship side within five years, giving themselves two and a half seasons to make each division jump from the fourth tier to the second.

“I don’t see any limits to what we can do in terms of the potential,” Hames said.

Earlier this month, I went to Chelsea’s season opener at Stamford Bridge, where Emma Hayes’ unbeatable players walked out to plumes of flame while matchday operatives with headsets and lanyards were wielding badged-up flags the size of bed sheets. The pageantry matched the ego of a side that has won four titles on the trot, pedalling the hype of doing it all over again.

On Sunday, the Easy Buy Stadium was doing its best impression of a Women’s Super League venue. Over on Humberside, they’ve got orange smoke. They’ve got Fatboy Slim over the PA and an assembly of small children waving flags, while a big one wears a tiger costume. In the build-up to the game there is so much spectacle that one photographer isn’t enough to capture it all, the great fanfare of the Tigresses’ arrival onto the battlefield being captured from every angle.

Five hundred fans were entertained before a ball had been kicked. Division One North matches can be cagey, but behind one stand there was a quartet of bouncy castles for fans to enjoy during any lulls in the action. On Sunday, they weren’t needed. United defender Harriet Jakeman got all the airtime she needed from a flying challenge by Ruby Dawson, who later took down former teammate Laura Bartup with a wallop that sent her walking on a second yellow.

While spectators were encouraged to embrace the carnival spirit, City were determined to stop United’s ex-Tigress Laura Bartup from joining in the fun. With a nifty turn and a sensible pass, she helped Danielle Whitham to pull Leeds back to 2-2. The next time Bartup threatened the box, a hefty shove took her away from the ball. Kathryn Smith scored the penalty and, within one three-minute period, Bartup’s brilliance had reclaimed the lead for Leeds.

United should have buried the game, then, according to the club’s match report, which tells us that in a moment of ‘huge controversy’ a second penalty-worthy offence drawn by Bartup was ignored by the referee, keeping the score at 3-2 and the former Tigress’ performance short of a riot.

None of the six goals which had the teams tied at 75 minutes matched the pre-match for spectacle, but then City’s Helen Lynskey made a late bid for wonder, plucking the ball from the sky with the inside of her boot and setting up Hull’s winner in one smooth turn. Between them, Lucy Turner and Skye Kirkham could have dealt with the ball but doing so would have robbed Lynskey of a stunning assist and the home crowd of the chance to high-five match-winner Hope Knight.

Hull City Ladies managing director Danny Johnson was quite sure that their club is all in this together. He tweeted: “Another win & another part of OUR journey. OUR fans today were unbelievable. Fantastic to see so much support today, true Hull City fans supporting the Tigresses. OUR players were tremendous, so determined for 3pts today. OUR manager must take credit for OUR win too!”

The same win put Hull City three points ahead of third-placed Leeds, a small step toward escaping the division. There are still two thirds of the season yet to play and while points will do more than pyro smoke to win you promotion, you might as well have a nice time while you’re doing what you can to escape this impossible league. ⬢