Oxford United Ladies finish their season with a win over Swindon
Oxford United Ladies finished their brilliant title-winning season with a comprehensive 3-0 win over neighbours Swindon Town.United had already wrapped up the South West Combination championship thanks to rivals Keynsham Town's 1-0 defeat to Plymouth Argyle on Sunday, but Oxford's players didn't allow their standards to slip as they dominated Swindon from start to finish, despite the absence of Sahara Osborne-Ricketts due to suspension.
Captain for the day was Lauren Allison, and she continued her impressive goal-scoring form with two early goals to put the U's into the driving seat. Allison opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a tap-in and then doubled the lead four minutes later as she finished calmly after being played through by Tash Caswell. These goals took Lauren's tally to 50 for the season - an impressive feat at any level.
Allison came close to completing her hat-trick eight minutes into the second half when her shot from inside the penalty area came back off the post with the Swindon keeper well beaten. Three minutes later the visitors had their first sight of the United goal when a speculative shot scraped the top of the crossbar, but it was Oxford who continued to dominate and with quarter of an hour remaining Tash Caswell capitalised on good work by substitute Dan Anderson to prod the ball home at the far post. Swindon responded well and goalkeeper Georgina Currie made an outstanding save from close range to preserve her clean sheet. Swindon also had a shot come back off the bar deep into stoppage time, but in the end nothing could prevent the Ladies - in their final game with that moniker - from celebrating winning the title in style, and the champagne celebrations then began in earnest.
Next up for the United Women's side is the WSL 2, which begins next March.
See a video report in Yellow Player