Championship leaders Liverpool left it late to beat Watford at Prenton Park and go seven points clear at the top of the FA Women’s Championship.

Substitute Katie Stengel’s close-range header seven minutes from time proved decisive for the Reds and condemned the Golden Girls to an eighth defeat in 12 league games.

Melissa Lawley had the home side’s first shot on target from 25 yards which was comfortably saved.

Yana Daniels thought she had put Liverpool in front on 17 mins with a close-range finish from a free-kick but the effort was ruled offside.

Top scorer Leanne Kiernan missed a great chance to open the scoring from 15 yards after being played in by Rachel Furness.

Hinds was then brought down by keeper Georgie Ferguson outside the box after pouncing on a mistake, but the referee was unmoved.

After the break, home keeper Rachael Laws received the first card of the afternoon following an accidental handball outside the box.

Shortly afterwards Ferguson then made a mistake to gift Kiernan an open goal, but the Irish international saw her angled effort drift wide.

At the other end, Watford rarely threatened Laws in the Liverpool goal as the game continued to be played in the visitors’ half.

Finally, in the 83rd minute, the league leaders found the breakthrough.

A long throw from Megan Campbell caused chaos in the box, and substitute Stengel nodded in from three yards.

The hosts closed out the game to earn their fourth successive win, while the visitors remain 11th after one win in six.

It was interim head coach Gifton Noel-Williams' first game in charge of the golden girls, after he took over from Clinton Lancaster.

Speaking to the club website ahead of the match, he said he wanted to get the team playing exciting football and picking up some much-needed wins.

“I’m a winner and always have been. I want to win games and I want to do so in a certain way," he said.

“We’ve got some really exciting players in the squad, and I think it’s a shame to have so many exciting players and not play exciting football. I’m hoping we’ll do that and win some games.

“If I’m here for four, five, six, however many games it is, I’d want the ratio of points of per game to be good, I’d want to leave the players and squad in a better place than how I found them.

“The main thing for me has been to put a smile on the players’ faces again. It may seem silly, everyone wants to talk about tactics and your philosophy, all those things. The only thing I was really interested in for the first week or so was just putting a smile back on the players’ faces and trying to remind them of ‘why did you play football?’ in the first place.

“I know why I played football, I know why I’m still in football and I know why I love the game so much, but I wanted them to remember why they loved it so much. I think we managed to do that between the coaching staff, the backroom staff, the General Manager who has been excellent, between us all I think we’ve managed to do it.

“For me if I can do that and they can finish the season with smiles on their faces and safe – we have to be safe - if that happens, then I can say ‘well my time here has been good.’”