The FA Tesco Women's Premier League Northern Division
Sunday 20 April 2008
Sunday is D-Day for Lincoln City and Nottingham Forest as the East Midlands promotion rivals head into the most thrilling Northern Division title-race finale in the history of the FA Tesco Women’s Premier League.
As each team kicks off its final match of the season, Lincoln at Sunderland and Forest at home to Sheffield Wednesday, the two title contenders are level on points but the Imps are ahead by a single goal in the goals-difference column.
Nottingham have scored 10 goals more than Lincoln, however, so if both teams win and Forest do so by at least a goal more than the Imps then Forest would take the title – and with it promotion – on goals scored.
It all adds up to the prospect of a pulsating but nerve-wracking afternoon as players, officials and supporters of both clubs try to keep tabs on the progress of their rivals as well as taking care of their own business.
Lincoln captain Megan Harris says: “I’m sure we’ll be kept up to date with the Forest score, but we can’t do anything about what happens in that game so we have to be totally focused on trying to win our own.
“We know we have to win it and by as many goals as possible, but we can’t just go flying forward all the time because that could cost us dearly. We just have to aim to get ourselves into a winning position and hope that the goals come along.”
Goals should come along in both games as, to add to the intrigue and tightness of the situation, Lincoln and Forest will be looking to complete doubles over their respective opponents having beaten them by the same 5-1 scoreline earlier in the campaign.
Forest skipper Kelly Finley says: “We’ll be expected to beat Wednesday again, especially with home advantage, but we certainly won’t go out thinking it’s going to be easy and that we can score as many goals as we like.
“Wednesday are a decent team who are going to finish in the top half of the table and we’ll give them the respect they deserve – but we are determined to get the victory and the goals we need to win promotion.
“It would be a fantastic achievement in only our third year in the Northern Division. I joined the club five years ago, just after they’d been promoted to the Midland Combination, and we’ve made tremendous progress.
“This season in particular has been brilliant. We’re unbeaten in the League, which is a great feat with such a young squad, and now we’ve got the biggest game in the club’s history to hopefully take us to where we want to be – the National Division.”
Lincoln of course share Forest’s dream of top flight football, which if achieved will indeed be a dream come true for Harris who has been with the club since its formation in 1994. “I’ve been here practically all my life!” says the 23-year-old captain.
“My team-mate Shelley Futter has been too,” adds Harris, “and several others joined us quite quickly so we’ve been working for a long, long time to get ourselves into this position – and we don’t intend wasting all that work now.”