Girls celebrating silverware success after close encounter with Rovers (From Crewe Guardian)

Girls celebrating silverware success after close encounter with Rovers

1:50pm Friday 8th March 2013 in Sport

Lymm Rovers 3 Crewe and Nantwich Girls u16 4

CREWE and Nantwich under 16s are celebrating their first silverware of the season after they were crowned champions of the Cheshire Girls’ European League.

Neck and neck with rivals Northwich Vics until the very end, Northwich's draw last week meant that victory was enough to earn Crewe the title.

The absence of goalkeeper Kara Townsend meant this was always going to be a tricky fixture, but stand-in keeper Anna Lawton impressed in behind a re-shuffled back line.

Crewe wasted no time in opening the scoring, Megan Naylor following up a superb shot from Aimee Scragg that beat the Lymm keeper but crashed back off the cross bar on six minutes.

Their lead only lasted for five minutes after the determined Lymm side equalised with a breakaway goal, before shocking Crewe by taking the lead three minutes later.

The host's advantage was short-lived, as Emma Storey played a delightful ball over the defence for Selina O'Neil to outpace the defenders and slot the ball past the keeper.

It was the boost they needed and 22 minutes later Crewe retook the lead.

Stand-in keeper Anna Lawton, who's distribution throughout the game was excellent, launched a goal kick deep in to the Lymm half, where Selina again raced past the defence before neatly chipping the ball over the advancing keeper.

Aimee Scragg wrapped up the game a minute later, captain Sophie Brooks playing a defence-splitting ball through to for Scragg to calmly slot the ball home to make it 4-2.

Mary Turley, Selina O'Neil and Aimee Scragg then all went close to extending the lead and putting the game beyond Lymm, but it remained 4-2 at half time.

Despite being in total control, Crewe made it difficult for themselves on 62 minutes when a moments hesitation from an otherwise faultless defence allowed the nippy Lymm winger to steal in and score a soft goal.

However, Crewe soon returned to dominating the game and held firm to secure three valuable points and a European League title.