Preston North End Women secured their first Lancashire County Cup with a 2-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers Ladies at Leyland on Friday night.
Goals from Keeleigh Savage and Sophie Jones cancelled out Amanda Goodwin’s opener to win the cup for the first time in the club’s history.
It was a slow start to the game from both sides and it wasn’t until the 12th minute when PNE had their first shot on target when Melissa Ball got an effort away from the edge of the area, but it was straight at Joanna Hutcheson.
The first goal of the game came fourteen minutes later as Blackburn countered and Goodwin was played in.
She cut inside and fired it past Danielle Brown into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
PNE continued to put more pressure on the Blackburn defence and got an equaliser after a great fingertip save by Brown.
The resulting corner was cleared off the line and PNE set off on a counter attack led by Gemma Watson.
Watson took the ball towards the byline and cut it back across the six yard area to the unmarked Savage to score against her former club and tie up the score.
Manager Mark Read made a change at half-time as Jones replaced Paige Forster and it was Jones who got the next goal which turned out to be the winner.
Brown sent a long kick up field which evaded the Blackburn defence and Savage brought it down on the edge of the area.
Savage spotted the forward run of Jones and picked her out perfectly for her to slot home and give PNE the advantage.
Savage could have had a hat trick against her former club but Hutcheson in the Blackburn goal denied her twice with two excellent diving saves.
With sixteen minutes left Blackburn were reduced to ten players as Sophie Flynn was sent off for a second yellow card.
The first was for a kick out at Ball and then two minutes later she lunged in on Watson to earn an early exit from the game.
The final whistle was greeted by jubilant cheers from all of the PNE players as they celebrated their first Lancashire County Cup success.
PNE: Brown, Stanfield, Bayley, Carroll, Taberner, Walker (c), Forster (Jones 45), Foster, Watson (Charlesworth 89), Ball, Savage