- Booth scores the winner on her first start since giving birth
- Finisher Fallon adds another to her goalscoring total
- Three more points on the board leaves Crewe in 7th
Crewe Alexandra Women grabbed a 3-2 victory at Liverpool based Mossley Hill in the penultimate game of the season.
Goals from Amanda Fallon, Emilia Edwards and the returning Megan Booth after 12 months out helped the Alex to all three points.
Matt Fisher had to make two late alterations to his matchday squad as Ella Pemberton limped out of the warm-up and Laura Pearce was withdrawn early on leaving Crewe stretched for options.
The Alex started the game on the front foot and almost took the lead in the opening 10 minutes when Loren Cooper’s effort was cleared off the line. Then at the other end of the pitch, the hosts watched their strike be cleared off the line by Shanice Finbow.
On 25 minutes, Fallon’s thunderous shot was tipped over the bar by the Mossley Hill number one but Crewe found the net from the resulting corner which was turned home by Fallon, who reacted quickest to a goal mouth scramble.
Despite taking the lead, Crewe were struggling to build combinations and trouble their opponents. Then on 36th minute they were punished when an effort from distance squirmed through Holloway’s hands and into the goal.
On the stroke of half-time, the Alex found themselves behind as a corner from the home side landed inside the six-yard box for the Mossley forward to stab home.
Matt Fisher’s half-time team talk got a reaction out of the Crewe Women XI as they searched for the equaliser.
The visitors were playing their football much higher up the pitch, with both Megan Booth and Emilia Edwards starting to cause their opponents problems.
Laura Garner supplied Fallon with a chance that just needed prodding home from close-range but the Crewe number nine mistimed her effort and didn’t make enough contact to trouble the ‘keeper.
The pressure continued to be piled on by Crewe and it paid off when Finbow split the opponents defence with a killer pass and Edwards expertly finished into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Fallon came close again to doubling her tally once more but she could only put her effort wide from inside the penalty area.
Garner was now playing a deeper role and Megan Parker went forward behind the front two, and she almost found the winner after her effort was parried wide.
The Alex grabbed that all important goal on 78 minutes as Fallon knocked the bouncing ball beyond her marker and as the ball hit a Mossley arm, Booth didn’t hesitate and scored her first goal on her return after giving birth to her child.
A poor first half was rectified with a much improved second half performance and all three points in the Alex’s final away game of the season.
Speaking post-match, Matt Fisher said: “We weren’t at the races in the first half. We’ve had three weeks off from games and you could tell. I just felt like we didn’t string any type of passes together when in possession and failed to move our opponent into the areas of the pitch we wanted them in.
“We reinforced our game plan at half-time and the girls reacted brilliantly. I don’t remember us having a single problem in the second half and for Meg [Booth] to come and score the winner is just the cherry on top.”
Crewe Alexandra play their final game of the season against West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC Women at Mornflake Stadium this Sunday (30th April) 14:00 kick-off.
Tickets for the fixture can be found here.