- Ragdale grabs opener
- Crewe edged out by top of the table Town
- Fisher's side close to full strength
Crewe Alexandra Women suffer narrow defeat to League Leaders Cheadle Town.
The Alex had taken the lead through Megan Ragdale but two set piece goals either side of the interval were the home sides downfall.
Head Coach Matt Fisher made four changes heading into the game with Laura Garner, Emma Heath, Eva-Rose Tankard and Emily Cole all earning starts.
It was the home side who started the brighter of the two teams as Heath came close to opening the scoring with a fine effort from just inside the Cheadle box, but her strike whistled past the post.
Heath was again involved in the action as she raced clear of the visitors backline, but she was met with a tough tackle from the outrushing Jessica Linford in the Cheadle goal.
The impressive Rachel Dunlop was providing the attacks for Cheadle, but Hannah Holloway continued to stand in her way.
Cole managed to beat two players on the right-hand side, she approached the byline and her cutback was met by Ragdale who broke the deadlock from eight-yards out at the second time of asking.
As both teams got ready for the half-time whistle, Ragdale needed to receive treatment for a tackle which lead to a corner for the visitors. Whilst on the sidelines, the Alex could only watch Sophie Johns head home unchallenged from the resulting corner.
Garner, who made her return to the starting XI, came close with a free-kick early on in the second half and then Jess Sheridan sliced open the defence with a pass to Leah Collins, but her effort went narrowly wide.
It was the visitors though that got the winner in almost identical fashion to their first. Another corner was pumped into the Crewe box and an unchallenged Johns nodded home from close-range.
Reflecting on the result, Matt Fisher said: "The girls played really well and we are happy with how they executed the game plan.
"It's just frustrating how we conceded the goals, but a couple of individual mistakes does not take away from the fact that we played some really good football against a quality side at the top of the table."
