Crusaders 3-2 Sutton Coldfield Town

In this first League game of the season it was Crusaders who made the early running following poor marking in the Royals defence on eight minutes

The home side scored another just after the break to give them a two-goal lead on forty-nine minutes

This signalled a fight-back from the Royals who were starting to gain traction in the game with a quality brace from striker Jordan Atkin with both left and right foot goals low into the corner of the Crusaders net

The come-back was now fully on as the Royals pounded the Crusaders goal with wave after wave of attacks but the defence held firm

On seventy-two minutes Crusaders took the lead with a floated free-kick which hit the top right-hand corner of the Royals net

Jordan Atkin, Player-of-the-Match, was denied what looked a certain spot-kick when she was pulled down in the Crusaders box on eighty-five minutes

The Royals battled right to the very end but Crusaders held firm for their first victory over Sutton in nine encounters

Not the outcome that we hoped for but some lessons learnt and we now look forward to preparing for our visit to newly promoted Solihull Sporting next Sunday in the League