New boss Gareth Horwood is celebrating his first victory as head coach of Hartlepool United Women.

Horwood saw Pools edge out Redcar Town Ladies 3-2 at Wolviston’s Metcalfe Park in the NERWFL Northern Division basement battle on Sunday.

Goals by Zara Johnson, Morgan Johnson and Libbie Trainor took Pools off the foot of the table and above their visitors, who replied through Heather Power and Katie Rowland.

Pools had shown promise in a 3-2 defeat at Washington the previous Sunday in Horwood’s first match in charge, but turned potential into points this weekend.

It gives the squad real hope of pulling away from danger in such a congested lower half of the table with Pools (11 points) just a point behind Gateshead and two shy of Chester-le-Street Amazons and Bishop Auckland on 13.

Horwood said: “It was a really good win and well deserved.

“The first half was difficult into the wind but we defended well throughout.

“We tweaked things a little bit for the second half and told our wide players to stay further forward and got instant success with a couple of good goals.

“We went 3-0 up and looked in control for large parts of the game but lost our composure a little late on.

“We conceded two goals against the run of play to give ourselves a difficult final 10 minutes but the players stepped up and battled for one another.

“Ultimately, they deserved their victory and I can’t praise them enough.”

Evie Smith was named player of the match while Emily Booth was voted best player by the opposition.