A late goal helped Watford Ladies secure their place in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest in their final game of the season.

A bright start by the hosts saw a chance within the first ten minutes. A Sarah Wiltshire corner was headed goalwards by skipper Cori Daniels and the ball fell to Charlotte Young who sliced the shot wide from close range.

Moments later, the away side’s Jemma Connor Iommi put a free kick onto the roof of the net in their first sight of goal in the game.

On the half hour mark, the away side gave a reminder of the threat they offered when Andi Bell’s speculative 35 yard effort had to be tipped over by Watford keeper Chloe Crook.

Against the run of play, the visitors opened the scoring minutes before half time. A hopeful ball forward over the top was chased by Bell. Crook came out of her area to stifle the chance but didn’t meet the ball as she would have hoped, and it fell kindly to Bell who calmly side-footed into the unguarded net.

With just a couple of minutes gone in the second half, Holly Miles was unfortunate to see her shot palmed onto the crossbar and over by Claire Wallhead.

With 60 minutes gone, Wiltshire again went close from a free kick with her 25-yard shot barely an inch wide of the far post with Wallhead beaten.

With 15 minutes to go, Bell had a good chance to put the result beyond Watford’s reach as she ran through onto a flick but she fired high over Crook’s goal.

Four minutes of added time had already gone and it looked as though the goal that Watford deserved would never come.

Miles used every ounce of energy left in her legs to launch the ball into the Forest penalty area. Wiltshire got an important touch on the ball to divert the ball into the path of Osborne Ricketts who had beaten the offside line well. She stayed composed to slot the ball past Wallhead to spark wild celebrations from the players and the Watford bench.

Manager Neil Hart said: “I am delighted for the players, the staff and the club that we have managed to secure out Premier League status for next season as I have no doubt that we deserve to be in this league.

“We certainly don’t do things the easy way sometimes but it was real example of the ladies’ character that we managed to get that goal right at the end and we never gave up.

“It is a great chance for us to relax, regroup and build for next season now and I think we have a strong foundation now on which we can build on. We are very close to being even more competitive in this league than we already are and we will do everything we can to achieve that.”