- Griffin nets hat-trick in eight goal thriller
- Garner adds two more to her impressive goal tally
- Crewe progress to the First Round proper once again
Crewe Alexandra Women manage to see off Sherwood Ladies FC in style scoring eight goals in total to reach the Vitality Women's FA Cup First Round proper.
The game took place at Crewe Alexandra's brand new artificial facility at Crewe Alex in the Community and the huge attendance weren't left disappointed as; Cerys Griffin netted a hat-trick, Laura Garner was able to add two more to her impressive 22-23 tally, Shanice Finbow, Beth Grice and Beth Ragdale all put their names on the scoresheet.
Crewe started the fixture on the front foot with the crowd behind them and saw an early opportunity hit the woodwork twice in the space of a couple of minutes. The bombardment continued as Sherwood couldn't cope with the overloads the home side were creating and the Alex finally broke the deadlock on the half hour mark, when Garner split the defence with a through ball and Griffin smashed it past the Sherwood 'keeper. Griffin was hungry for more but could only be denied by the Sherwood number one. Their persistence paid off though as Finbow met a Garner corner to double the Reds' lead. The home side weren't done there though as Ragdale's header and Garner's effort crashed into the back of the net to cement the first-half dominance.
Matt Fisher's team talk would've been an easy one at half-time as he will have asked for more of the same. He got just that as Griffin grabbed her second of the day in the 56th minute as she profited from the goalkeeper spilling Garner's long-range effort into her path. Garner made it 6 eight minutes later as she scored another Goal of the Season contender from a free-kick. The home side rang the changes seeing the introduction of Grace Duckworth, Megan Beech and finally seeing the return of one of the longes serving players, Laura Pearce after two years out with an ACL rupture. Crewe carried on in search of more goals and it was the impressive Grice who got it. To cap off a terrific afternoon for the women's side Griffin bagged her hat-trick to put Crewe's name in the Vitality Women's FA Cup First Round proper hat.
Head Coach, Matt Fisher said: "I thought the girls were superb today. We were possibly wasteful at times in front of goal but the chances we created whilst being defensively solid was pleasing.
"Our full-backs offered so much width to our game, and it looked like we had an extra two players at times. Garner was in fine form as was Cerys and whilst we know we have some huge challenges coming up in the next couple of weeks, we will enjoy this performance and result."
The Alex Women have been drawn away in the next round of The Vitality Women's FA Cup against National Premier League side West Bromwich Albion with the tie due to be played on 13 November.