Friday, April 26

Cornwall FA Womens Cup final at Wadebridge Town FC

Callington Town 7

Bude Town 0

LUCY Jones scored a hat-trick as Callington won the Cornwall FA Womens Cup for the third year in succession by easing past Bude Town in the final at Bodieve Park.

Callington went into the game as firm favourites against the Seasiders, with the team from East Cornwall riding high in the SWWFL Premier and Bude sitting in mid-table in the SWWFL Western Division.

There were no signs of pressure on Callington however, as they controlled the game from the kick-off. Bude were clearly up for the battle and were working hard to restrict their opponents in the opening exchanges. After ten minutes though the opening goal came from a Gemma Farley trademark in-swinging corner. The attacker has scored direct from corners a handful of times this season already and she managed the feat once more.

Five minutes later Callington doubled their lead. Emily Sweet crossed from the right to her opposite wing-back and Sam Veal applied the finishing touch, lifting the ball over goalkeeper Jo Timmins from five yards.

Shortly after the half-hour mark Farley was involved again as she rode two challenges on the edge of the box to tee-up striker Chloe Williams. The rapid forward struck the ball first time into the corner of the net to put her side firmly in the driving seat. 

Callington then capped off a dominant opening 45 minutes when Adele Brown set-up Jones to calmly chip Timmins with her left foot from the edge of the area.

Bude still carried somewhat of a threat on the counter and Callington’s three centre backs — Amy Hemingway, Tyler Matthews and Sam Burnham — had to be on their toes to deal with Sarah Badham who’s had a good season in front of goal. Sara Rowe also showed good handling between the posts to hold onto a couple of efforts from range on a wet and windy evening at Bodieve Park.

Five minutes into the second-half Callington added to their lead. The hard-working Eleri Griffiths played a square ball to Jones and the midfielder fired into the far corner with her right foot. Ten minutes later it was 6-0 when Griffiths finally got her rewards in front of goal as she beat the offside trap to race down on goal and calmly slot past Timmins.

Bude continued to work hard off the ball and were showing no signs of rolling over in front of a 200+ size crowd under the floodlights. Timmins was in no mood to give-up either as she denied Jodie Smith twice with excellent stops and then pulled off a good save from a powerful strike by young winger Ellisha Davey.

Then on 80 minutes, player-of-the-match Jones pounced in the box to head home for her ‘perfect hat-trick’ of a left foot, right foot and headed goals.

Reflecting on their achievements, Callington manager Adam McPherson said: “Right across the team, they’ve stepped up and got the job done in a cup final once again. The players relish the big occasion and it showed on the night. It was great to see Lucy (Jones) back to her very best as well. The team had a couple of below par results leading into the final, so everyone can be so proud of how they performed on the night when the pressure was on us to win it. They executed our gameplan perfectly and thoroughly enjoyed themselves on and off the pitch.”

Callington Town (3-5-2) — Sara Rowe; Tyler Matthews, Amy Hemingway, Sam Burnham; Emily Sweet, Adele Brown, Lucy Jones, Gemma Farley, Sam Veal; Eleri Griffiths, Chloe Williams

Substitutes: Ellisha Davey, Jodie Smith, Keri-Ann Moxom, Louise Ham, Brittany Harper.

Bude Town (4-5-1) — Jo Timmins; Assumpta Britten, Lisa Cornish, Zoe Curtis, Steph Smeeth; Katherine Bryant, Courtney Ward, Kelly Darnley, Charlie Lang, Natalia Page; Sarah Badham

Substitutes: Clare Badham, Lou Page, Leanne Stanbury, Claire Gifford, Anna Cleave