Albion under-21s beat Southern Premier League side Crawley Wasps 3-1 at Culver Road on Wednesday to win the Sussex Women’s Challenge Cup.
First half goals from Alisha Mainwaring and Josie Longhurst put Sinead Fitzsimons’ side in a commanding position at half-time, and despite Natasha Stephens pulling a goal back for Crawley with 20 minutes remaining, Lulu Jarvis sealed victory with a late third.
Albion started confidently but the Wasps, who won this competition in 2021, had the first chance when Stephens received Naomi Cole’s through ball and raced through on goal.
The striker was in acres of space and looked set to score, but her low strike was well saved by Frankie Angel.
Stephens was combining well with Cole and caused Albion some early problems, but Fitzsimons’ team looked bright on the counter-attack and confident on the ball, and took the lead through Mainwaring 25 minutes into the game.
Juliet Arimoro won Albion a corner when her searching pass into the box was hacked clear, and from Lea Cordier’s resulting delivery, Mainwaring, who returned from her loan spell with the Wasps for the final, leapt unmarked to head powerfully into the bottom corner.
Arimoro nearly doubled Albion’s lead after Josie Longhurst evaded a couple of challenges in the centre of midfield and laid a pass into the striker’s path, but her driven effort was straight at Crawley goalkeeper Jaqui Goldsmid.
Albion didn’t have to wait much longer for a second goal, however, and it was another assist for Cordier - this time following a clever short-corner routine after 39 minutes.
The Belgian exchanged passes with Jarvis before curling a lovely first-time cross towards the back post, where Longhurst stood in enough space to stoop and head past Goldsmid.
Moments before half-time Florence Jackson tried to find Crawley Wasps a way back into the game but fired over from 18 yards, and Albion were deserving of their two-goal cushion at the break.
It was very nearly a three-goal cushion five minutes into the second half, but Faith Nokuthula saw her angled shot across goal tipped wide, and then Arimoro was denied by Goldsmid from range just after the hour-mark.
The game began to get stretched as tiredness on both sides started to creep in, and Crawley soon halved the deficit with a scrappy goal.
Stephens was the scorer, bundling home from no more than a yard out after Angel had taken the sting out of Morton’s shot across the face of goal on 71 minutes.
Crawley were now hunting for an equaliser, but couldn’t breach Albion’s stubborn defence and as they threw players forward they were wide open at the back.
Albion capitalised and restored their two-goal lead with seven minutes remaining, as Jarvis swivelled just inside the area and struck a low effort across goal and into the bottom corner.
The sting was taken out of the Wasps and Albion comfortably held on to claim a deserved victory and lift the trophy in front of 269 supporters.
Albion: Angel, Miller, Cordier, Jones, Cotton, Curran, Longhurst, Nukuthula, Jarvis, Arimowo, Mainwaring.
Subs: Jenkins, Larkin, White, Lane, Schreimaier