Sutton Coldfield Town 2-0 Burton Albion

The Royals clinched promotion to the FA Women’s National League with victory over Burton Albion on Sunday

This was the culmination of 8 years of hard-work and dedication by numerous people and proved an extremely emotional day!

Sutton took to the pitch with the U10 girls team who were mascots for the day

A couple of early injuries saw the game open in a very stop-start manner, with no chance coming in the opening 10 minutes

A free-kick from captain Ruth Graham resulted in a shot at goal that the Burton goalkeeper was comfortably able to deal with in the 11th minute

A long-range effort from Burton clipped the top of the crossbar on it’s way over for a goal-kick in the 13th minute

Chloe Finn saw a shot from the edge of the penalty-area dealt with by the goalkeeper after 16 minutes

2 minutes later Chloe Handy had a shot from distance that dropped into the goalkeeper’s arms

Handy saw an effort flash wide of the near-post after good work from Jordan Atkin midway through the half

Atkin had a chance herself after 26 minutes which unfortunately went the wrong side of the post

A shot flew post Sutton goalkeeper Lottie McElroy’s far-post in the 28th minute

McElroy comfortably gathered a long-range free-kick 10 minutes prior to half-time

Handy saw a free-kick held by the goalkeeper after 37 minutes

Finn tried her luck from distance 3 minutes later, however the effort flew just wide

Injury forced off a Burton defender in first-half stoppage-time

Handy had another shot that went just wide with the last chance of the half

HT - 0-0

3 minutes into the second-half, a mix-up in the Burton penalty-area almost saw Sutton take the lead, however the eventual shot drifted wide of the post

Atkin went round the goalkeeper a minute later, but was unable to turn the ball into the net from a wide angle

Atkin had another effort when shooting from distance after 52 minutes, however the effort was some way off target

Charlotte Worth was unable to get her shot on target whilst under pressure from a defender just before the hour-mark

The deadlock was finally broken after 68 minutes, when Brittany Civil latched onto a ball forward and managed to head the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper

It was almost 2-0 with 15 minutes to play, as a long-range effort from Atkin flew inches past the far-post

The Burton goalkeeper was forced to tip over an effort from Sarah Lampitt after 78 minutes

In a fitting manner, Graham struck a free-kick into the bottom-corner of the Burton net with only 45 seconds of stoppage-time remaining to seal the victory, championship and promotion

FT - 2-0

Player-of-the-Match was Ally Forbes, who was solid throughout as always and whose experience was vital in guiding the team through an emotional 90 minutes