Marlborough Town Ladies football club came back from Stanley Park in Chippenham yesterday (Sunday) with a trophy, having beaten Swindon Spitfires to win the Wiltshire County Women’s & Girls Football League Cup. Emma Brown reports.
Marlborough Ladies 3 Swindon Spitfires 2
Marlborough arrived at the Cup Final game with a feeling of steely determination after a superb run of results. They were taking on the team that they came runners up to in the 2014-2015 season. This year Marlborough wanted to bring the trophy home to put in the club cabinet along side the Marlborough Town Casuals Team trophy that was won the previous weekend.
Both teams came out of the dressing rooms with a real desire to win and to play good football along the way. The game was very even with some heavy but fair tackling. Within ten minutes of the start, Marlborough lost one of their strong defensive players in Laura Crampton.
She went in to a heavy tackle and headed the ball on the rise. As Laura and the Swindon player came down from the tackle, Laura landed awkwardly on her right ankle. This was made worse by the fact that the Swindon player landed on top of Laura’s ankle making the injury worse and resulting in her having to go to hospital and not take any further part in the game.
Marlborough remained unfazed with the resulting reshuffle and quickly got back in to the game. The game remained very even and competitive through to half time with goal keeper Robyn Hill make several outstanding saves including some one on one opportunities for the Swindon team. Both sides gave an outstanding amount of effort in the heat of the Sunday afternoon.
The players came out after half time with the same amount of determination. Kerry Ash was able to whip a ball in to the box from the right wing and Kirsty Miles got herself in to a great position in the box to get on the end of it, trap the ball and fire it in to the goal at the 54 minute mark.
Marlborough were unable to keep the lead for long with Swindon shooting for goal on 57 minutes. Robyn Hill made another great save from the Swindon shot but was unable to prevent them from getting on the end of the parried shot, levelling it up at 1-1.
Swindon took a further opportunity on 65 minutes from a Marlborough goal kick that one of the Swindon players was able to sweep on to and confidently slot it in to the corner of the Marlborough goal beyond the outstretched hand of the keeper.
Marlborough Ladies refused to allow their heads to drop and showed huge belief in themselves with some strong tackling and excellent interchange to keep Swindon on their toes. This culminated in ‘The Fox in the Box’ and season top striker, Ffion Williams getting herself in to a position on the edge of the box and shooting from about 20 yards out over the keeper and in to the goal to bring the scores level at 2-2.
Just two minutes later, the fantastic and large crowd were in raptures as midfielder Rebecca Knox slipped through a perfectly timed and weighted through ball to Ffion, splitting the Swindon defence in two. Ffion stayed sure footed and strong to strike the ball in to the net and take Marlborough Town Ladies back in to the lead again at 3-2.
Marlborough remained calm and strong, holding on to the ball for the final minutes of the game and chasing down any opposition possession to keep their lead and take the Marlborough Town Ladies Team in to history as Wiltshire County Women’s & Girls Football League Cup Champions.