Egerton have the edge on Linnets again

Egerton Ladies 2 Runcorn Linnets Ladies 1 A CARBON copy of the previous week’s Cheshire Women’s League result sent Runcorn Linnets Ladies crashing out of the Cheshire County Cup against the same opponents Egerton Ladies.

Controversial decisions once again favoured the home side and altered the outcome.

Runcorn in the first half were exceptional, limiting the home side to one serious breakaway chance while creating a dozen or more opportunities of their own.

The only surprise was it took Linnets 45 minutes to open the scoring when a delightful through-ball from Marcia Jones-Sacharewicz was dispatched by Kim Roberts for a welldeserved lead.

It should really have been a lot more at the break.

As expected, Egerton pushed forward at the beginning of the second half.

Megan Pickering, who had been a late replacement in the Linnets goal when Rebekah Durr withdrew through illness, was now seeing more of the ball as Egerton pressed for the equaliser.

On 54 minutes, that equaliser came as Runcorn stepped up to catch the lone Egerton forward offside but the referee was having none it and allowed the striker to advance, tucking the ball past Pickering with aplomb.

This was hardly a marginal decision and one which an irate Linnets defence protested strongly about.

Like the previous week Egerton went on to be awarded a penalty.

There was no doubt about it – it was, like last week, the correct decision as Linnets had lost discipline, cleary upset by what they considered an earlier injustice.

As Runcorn pressed for an equaliser of their own, defender Tish Edwards was sent tumbling to the ground in an off-the-ball incident from a free-kick in the Egerton 18-yard box but again Linnets’ appeals for a penalty were quickly dismissed.

Player-of-the-match honours for Runcorn went to Mary Rossiter-Gurrell. But there were several contenders.

One of the positives of the last two weeks has been the emergence of young Lucy Wieland, whose extended run in the team has seen her put in some fine performances.

Since beating Sandbach Ladies in the previous round of this competition, Runcorn Linnets Ladies have performed much better in general and made progress with each game since but results would suggest otherwise.

The problem stems from not having a prolific goalscorer or goalscorers to convert the many chances created.

Once they solve that, the controversial decisions will not be a problem.