Cup caps brilliant season
Linnets eventually see off Glossop
Runcorn Linnets Ladies 4 Glossop Ladies & Juniors 1 RUNCORN Linnets Ladies bounced back at the first time of asking from their opening day Cheshire Women’s League defeat to West Kirby with a 4-1 home win against a plucky young Glossop North End Ladies & Juniors team.
Linnets, while still not at their fluent best this season, were particularly effective in the early stages through Kim Roberts and Chelsea Gillies.
As much as Runcorn tried, they could not find an early way to beat the Glossop goalkeeper and when they did, the woodwork came to the rescue as a Roberts drive crashed against the bar in the 18th minute.
North End conceded an unnecessary free-kick on the edge of their penalty box seven minutes later for a foul on striker Lile Ashley.
Ashley stepped up to dispatch it past the ‘keeper.
The hosts were in the ascendancy now but failed to further capitalise on their pressure as they missed a 28th minute penalty, which surely would have calmed a few nerves, especially on the Runcorn bench.
Ashley flashed a cross-cumshot across the Glossop area but no-one in a Runcorn shirt could get that vital touch.
North End themselves had probably their best chance of the half in the 32nd minute.
A slip in the Linnets’ defence allowed a Glossop forward through on goal but Alicia Mason narrowed the angle to turn the resulting effort away for an unproductive corner.
Linnets were thwarted just before half-time by exceptionally brave goalkeeping and went in only 1-0 to the good.
Runcorn increased their lead not long into the second half.
Gabby Evans found teammate Roberts down the Tyrrell and Tom Drury.
The win was Runcorn’s second over Grappenhall this season – as the locals were the only team to defeat them in the league.
Runcorn finishing second in the league campaign only because the one game they lost in the season was a result of their side being decimated by first-team call-ups and exams.
It was Runcorn’s first-ever cup win in the 56 years of this U18 age group competition – they finished runners-up in 1977 and 1983 – and brought the curtain down on the most successful season in the club’s history.
The U18s had eased their way into the showdown with Grappenhall after piling up the highest score in the three-match finals day at Chester Boughton Hall when they made 184-4 off 20 overs against Warrington. Booth and Grobbelaar again got them off to a supreme start with an opening stand of 80 from just nine overs. Booth struck a sublime 50 not out while Grobbelaar curbed his natural aggression as he complied 29 off 22 balls in tricky conditions.
Skipper Beech then clubbed 48 not out from 29 balls and was ably supported by Ruane and Tyrrell as Runcorn made their second highest score of the season.
Warrington’s reply was always struggling against a miserly Runcorn bowling attack and Tom Drury produced the best figures with a fine spell of 4-6 from his four overs to see Warrington dismissed for 107 in the final over.
Beech took two wickets, with Adam Jones, Booth, Grobbelaar and Tyrrell all snaring one victim each. right. The latter in turn picked out Ashley whose cross was hammered home at the far post by an unmarked Tempany Carlson.
Mandy Kennedy, Gillies and Becky Barker began to dominate in the centre of the park although Glossop were still a threat on the counterattack.
Runcorn manager John Pickering made the bold move of replacing three players all at once, bringing on Nichola Hyland, Lucy Wieland and Ellie Isherwood for Mary RossiterGurrell, Roberts, and Ashley, respectively in the 57th minute.
Almost immediately, it paid dividends as a powerful Gillies header from a Carlson corner made it 3-0.
The Derbyshire outfit enjoyed a bit of a purple patch themselves forcing a couple of corners before pulling a goal back from a free-kick which evaded Runcorn’s rearguard at the near post.
With 10 minutes to go, Runcorn rounded off the scoring from another corner, Carlson being adjudged to have got a touch to the ball, although it may have gone in off a North End defender.
Glossop struggled to cope with the pace of Wieland on the right in the latter stages but Linnets failed to convert the winger’s crosses.
As the game drew to a close, Runcorn made several more substitutions to see things out.
Chelsea Gillies was given the player-of-the-match award and boss Pickering will be pleased with the some aspects of the team’s performance.
But he will be waiting eagerly for the next scheduled match and the return of absent trio Katy McNamara, Caitlin Gibbons and Kayleigh Catterall-Rowe to hot up the competition for starting places.