Women's football news
Crawley Wasps LFC v Lewes FC Women
Thursday 22nd March 2018
Lancing
Old friends come head-to-head at Sussex FA HQ on Thursday evening as Lewes face Crawley Wasps LFC in the County Cup final.
Wasps, flying high in the leagues below the Rookettes, boast several former Lewes players. Former WSL star and captain of Millwall Naomi Cole skippers the side, whilst up front, striker Faye Rabson and in defense Charlie Carter are is looking forward to taking on their old club.
Quoted in the Crawley Happy Times, Rabson said
‘I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun playing a few ex-teammates.
We know it’ll be a tough test but our preparation has been brilliant this season.’
Two recent movers from Lewes to Crawley, Rachel Palmer and Darcey James, are ineligible to face their old club on this occasion.
21 places separate Lewes and Wasps in the women’s pyramid, but lest we forget it was former Lewes midfielder Cole who settled the match in favour of the Rookettes the last time these two met in this competition, at the semi-final stage back in 2013. Crawley stunned recent league opponents Watford Development 21-0, so they certainly know where the goal is.
Lewes have been frustrated by fixture chaos since the turn of the year. They last played a league match in November last year. They reached the 5th round of the FA Cup recently and lost out to Leicester City in the FAWPL Cup semi-final two weeks ago.
Captain Katie McIntyre says of her team “We are looking forward to taking part in a competitive cup final. Crawley are a very good side and we know there is no room for complacency as the league tables are not a true representation of Crawley’s current standard. It should be a great game.”
Manager John Donoghue says his players are frustrated at the lack of league action but will look forward to a run-out against a buzzing Crawley team.
“The team is looking forward to Thursday, it’s exciting to be in a cup final and playing under floodlights adds to the occasion, the players understand that Crawley will make this an extremely tough game, they have many players who have played at this level and I’m sure it will be an extremely close game. We have trained hard to keep our already fantastic fitness levels up as fixtures have been cancelled, both teams should come into the game fresh after not playing on the weekend and will both look to play attacking football”.
Hopefully, we can get a few fans along on Thursday. It’ll be an entertaining game with plenty on it, not least a trophy. It’s a cup final in more ways than one, so it should be good to watch.’