Ladies cut down by Crewe for first home defeat in more than a year
Runcorn Linnets Ladies 0 Crewe Alexandra Ladies 2 RUNCORN Linnets Ladies tasted Cheshire Women’s League defeat for the first time since March 2015 when losing 2-0 at the Millbank Linnets Stadium to Crewe Alexandra Ladies.
The champions had not been beaten at home for more than 17 months and at the end of the first half, this outcome could never have been expected.
Crewe had barely tested home goalkeeper Nat Pinnington until the 35th minute.
With a flurry of shots from the home team raining in on the opposition’s goal there was little indication of the final score to come.
Good play from Chelsea Gillies and Lile Ashley saw the latter shoot over as early as the third minute.
A minute later, Beth Coppin saw her shot from outside the box go narrowly wide of the target.
Twice in a matter of minutes, Mandy Kennedy had shots that just cleared the bar or went wide.
An excellent piece of skill inside the area by Ashley nearly gave her a half-chance on goal but Crewe cleared, broke quickly and probably should have done better with their first serious strike of the opening half.
Linnets striker Megan Pickering was unlucky not to break the deadlock on 38 minutes.
Crewe goalkeeper Charlotte Baddely, outside her 18-yard box, sliced a clearance and Ashley headed into the path of Pickering whose early, lofted effort was somehow palmed away by the recovering No1 for an unproductive corner.
The away team looked a different proposition when their diminutive and speedy substitute was introduced and she would prove the difference between the two sides once the final whistle was blown.
Player-of-the-game for Linnets, Sadie Bond, along with Kennedy, Ana Duran Anca and the youngsters Gillies, Ashley, Frankie Valdez and Lucy Wieland each had an excellent first half.
If Crewe had been slightly insipid in the first period, they sprung to life after the break.
Attacking down the slope, they looked for long periods the likelier scorers although Runcorn had their chances.
Tempany Carlson fired wide from a superb Valdez cross on 48 minutes while Carlson again hit past a post two minutes later, after good play from Ashley.
At the other end, Pinnington twice rescued the home side with Bond, the consistent Duran Anca, Gabby Evans and Jo Finnegan (who played her best game to date in a yellow and green shirt) all having to be alert.
The home side created a number of half-chances throughout but lacked that killer instinct to hurt Crewe.
With 15 minutes to go, the away team took the lead their sustained pressure had warranted.
Crewe striker Beth Grice recovered a loose ball to get the better of Evans before hitting a dipping shot over Pinnington.
The home side, now looking for the equaliser, pushed on. The game-changing moment came within a minute of Crewe taking the lead.
A sweetly-struck volley by Linnets midfielder Gillies, eight yards from goal, looked destined for the back of the net but was somehow saved by the partially-unsighted Baddely.
The visitors immediately cleared their lines to counter swiftly and put the game beyond Linnets’ reach, striker Grice getting her second from a lightning break.
This was probably, and certainly in the first half, the best performance of the season for Runcorn Linnets Ladies.
Manager John Pickering will have been encouraged by the performance especially before the break, as should the players. He will point to the fact that nine of his squad are former Linnets Youth players with little experience of open-age football.
But he will also know the deficiencies of his team’s display too and will be eager to put them right on the training ground in midweek.