Watford FC Ladies beat Milton Keynes Dons Ladies 2-1 away from home over the weekend, after a flurry of late goals prevented the game from finishing goalless.

The match was heading for a stalemate as it entered the final ten minutes, but goals from Helen Ward and Adekite Fatuga-Dada gave the Hornets a two goal lead before Alice Hughes halved the deficit. 

The Golden Girls made two changes to the team that lost to league leaders Coventry United at home the week before, with Katie O’Leary returning and Robyn Levett making her second appearance for the club in goal.

Ward managed to put the ball in the net early on, but on offside flag cancelled out her celebrations and meant the Hornets would have to wait to break the deadlock.

Sophie Shults had a busy half with Jennifer Kikomenko and Alysha Stojko-Down forcing her into some impressive stops, while Andrea Carid's curling effort came back off the crossbar.

The hosts ended the half on the front foot and thought they had taken the lead themselves when Leah Littlechild threaded a through pass to Amy Gooderham whose finish in the bottom corner was also ruled out by the referee's assistant for offside.

A close second-half saw both sides battling to try and open the scoring and Watford eventually managed it with just ten minutes remaining.

Kikomeko’s through ball rolled into Ward's path and found the bottom corner with great aplomb to give the Hornets the lead.

They doubled their advantage only a few minutes later when Ward’s shot was blocked, but she recovered well to pick out Fatuga-Dada with the rebound, who tapped home from close range.

Hughes latched on to a cross from the left to pull one back for MK Dons, but by then they had run out of time and Watford claimed the points.

After the game, defender Hattie Kettle told the club website: “It would have obviously been better to also keep a clean sheet, but the win is the most important thing.

“We’ve had a bit of a wait for a good win, I felt that we were due one. In previous games we’ve been playing well but haven’t been getting the results. Luckily, we’ve managed that today, we were the better team and deserved to win the game.”