Nottingham Trent University took home the BUCS Aldi Women’s National Trophy for the third time after a nine-goal thriller was decided in the last minute of extra time, reports Mia Jimenez.
After an intense, back-and-forth 119 minutes at Basford United, Piper O’Neill crossed the ball into Bea Hembrough to head home the winning goal for Trent.
Three weeks earlier, Trent had made the long journey to St Andrews University for the Semi-Final of the BUCS competition and narrowly won 6-5 on penalties.
So, it is fair to say that Trent had fought hard to get to the final and only did the same in the final against Cambridge University.
They went up early in the game with Niamh Reynolds finishing into the bottom corner from just outside the box, shortly followed by a goalmouth scramble and eventual finish by Eve Marshall after a free-kick.
However, Cambridge didn’t give up the fight and in the space of less than ten minutes, they lifted their heads to score two goals, making it 2-2 going into the break
During half-time, the nerves in both changing rooms must have been intense, but the buzz provided by Trent supporters was still going strong as the teams returned for the next 45 minutes.
Just two minutes after the whistle was blown to start the half, Cambridge looked to have flipped the script, scoring from a one-on-one that came from a great through ball to make it 3-2.
But this game only provided more twists and shocks as Katie Middleton scored two goals within two minutes for Nottingham Trent.
Both sides relied on fresh legs as subs were made around the 60-minute mark, and Cambridge trailed 4-3 moving into the crunch time of the 90-minute period.
Then, Cambridge’s changes made a huge impact right in time as substitute Alissa Sattentau scored in the 75th minute to tie it all back up again.
The referee then blew his whistle for full-time, ensuring the dramatic game would continue for a further 30 minutes.
Substitutions were made by both sides to revive the energy they needed to continue playing 30 minutes of football.
After 119 minutes of gruelling football, Trent’s very own scholar Bea Hembrough slotted in a header from Piper O’Neill’s cross.
As she dove for the header, Basford could hear a pin drop as all the supporters held their breaths and suddenly erupted into screams of pure joy as the ball hit the net – Nottingham Trent had done it again!
A 5-4 victory was therefore secured at Basford United for Nottingham Trent to take home the National Trophy.
The result completed a hugely impressive double this season, winning their league, the BUCS Aldi Women’s Midlands Tier 1, as well as this cup.
Celebrations were certainly big after this win but attention now turns to the next two games, a huge set of Aldi Women’s Premier (North) Playoffs for the Trent girls against Sheffield University and St Andrews on Wednesday, March 29 and Wednesday, April 26 respectively.
All photos courtesy of NTU Women’s Football (@NTUWFC on Twitter).