Sunday April 24th
FA PREMIER LEAGUE
NORTHERN DIVISION
Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Nottingham Forest
Bradford City 1-2 Preston North End (Att: 50)
Guiseley AFC Vixens 2-2 Nuneaton Town
Loughborough Foxes 2-1 Stoke City
Newcastle United 2-0 Derby County
Sporting Club Albion 0-0 Huddersfield Town (Att: 53)
SOUTHERN DIVISION
Charlton Athletic 9-1 Forest Green Rovers (Att: 88)
Plymouth Argyle 2-2 Queens Park Rangers (Att: 68)
Portsmouth 2-1 Cardiff City LFC
MIDLANDS DIVISION 1
Leafield Athletic 2-1 Birmingham & West Midlands
Peterborough Northern Star 5-0 Loughborough Students
Rotherham United 2-3 Sporting Khalsa
Solihull 0-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
NORTHERN DIVISION 1
Chorley 0-5 Middlesbrough
Leeds 1-0 Tranmere Rovers (Att: 62)
Norton & Stockton Ancients 2-1 Stockport County
SOUTH EAST DIVISION 1
Crystal Palace 3-0 Cambridge United (Att: 124)
Gillingham 3-2 Ipswich Town
Old Actonians 3-2 Norwich City
SOUTH WEST DIVISION 1
Keynsham Town 3-3 Larkhall Athletic (Att: 70)
Shanklin 3-2 Maidenhead United
Southampton Saints 3-0 Cheltenham Town
Swindon Town 3-1 St.Nicholas
Northern leaders Preston completed their fixtures with a 2-1 win at Bradford, while all the other title contenders dropped points. Rosie McDonnell scored for City shortly before the interval, Yasmine Swarbrick equalised approaching the hour mark and Jenna Carroll forced the winner on 72 minutes after a Charlotte Farrell header was cleared off the line.
Sporting Club Albion remain in a strong position despite a goalless draw with Huddersfield, having 5 games in hand and 9 points behind. Blackburn are effectively out of the running following a 0-0 with Nottingham Forest, which also ended their visitors’ faint hopes. Stoke also slipped out of the championship race with a shock 2-1 defeat at basement side Loughborough Foxes, for whom Laura Steele and Emma Pilling were on target.
Charlton closed in on the Southern runners-up spot when thrashing Forest Green 9-1, scoring three times in the first few minutes, with Charley Clifford and Gemma Shepherd going on to complete hat-tricks.
Portsmouth completed a league double over Cardiff to go level on points with them but City still have two games to play. Enmma Shwerood and Shannon Sievwright found the net before Cardiff replied from an injury-time free kick.
Plymouth were confirmed as finishing last but did so by holding QPR to a 2-2 tie. Cherelle Albert’s 25-yard opener for Rangers was quickly cancelled out, Juliette Denny restored the lead only for Argyle to level again and then miss a penalty.
The Midlands bottom three are still fighting amongst themsleves to avoid the drop, despite all three incredibly winning. Leafield are a point above danger still after defeating Birmingham & West Midlands with Shona Baldwin coming off the bench to get the decider. Peterborough put five past Loughborough Students, Cassie Steward scoring two goals before the break. Sporting Khalsa pulled off a 3-2 result at Rotherham.
Northern Division 1 winners Middlesbrough signed off in style, with a 5-0 success at fourth-placed Chorley, where Bianca Owens scored all four of their first-half goals. Leeds went level on points with Chorley, Bryony Chapman having got the only goal against Tranmere, who are in the relegation zone. Norton are already down but did win 2-1 over Stockport thanks to efforts by Rebecca Davison and Sian Michelle Williams, while County still have some work to do to become safe.
South East champions Crystal Palace went 15 points clear with a 3-0 scoreline against Cambridge at Selhurst Park. Gillingham came from two down to edge out Ipswich 3-2 in their pursuit of second spot. Lois Davis, Kallie Balfour and Lydia Wills replied to Town goals by Libby Dixon and Amanda Crump. Old Actonians got a late winner against Norwich after the canaries had twice equalised, to secure their status at the expense of Lowestoft.
Swindon went back to the top of the South West table after eventually seeing off lowly St Nicholas, who had replied to Alice Smith’s opener. Meg Vella and Chyna Collings then got the goals for a 3-1 win. Town’s position was strengthened by Keynsham sharing six goals with Larkhall. Southampton Saints are sixth after sending Cheltenham home beaten 3-0, Krystal White getting one and forcing an own-goal as well. Shanklin’s 3-2 victory over Maidenhead was their third win of the campaign.
