Boston United have been crowned the 2024 Lincolnshire FA County U14 Girls' Cup champions after a tight but entertaining 2-1 victory at Sleaford Town's MKM Ground.

Andy Donnelly's Pilgrims emerged victorious against a strong Grimsby Borough (Ladies) U14 Girls side, led by Andy Garland. 

Grimsby Borough started the game the stronger of the two sides, looking like the early threat as Lucy Spall got on the end of a well weighted ball over the top of the Pilgrims defence and took it around the keeper, before unluckily tripping over and sparing the blushes of Boston United. The Pilgrims soon responded with a threat of equal measure, when Lily-Rose Thompson squared a ball across the Borough box for Jasmin Adcock, but the Boston number 9 couldn't quite get a touch at the back post and the chance went begging.

It wasn't long though before the Pilgrims took an early lead after a corner was delivered into the Borough box, and after a melee of trying to get the ball back out of the box, an unfortunate defender tried to clear the ball and kicked it against her team mate and the ball bounced back into her own net. The Pilgrims won't mind how the goal came though, as they go 1-0 up. 

In quick succession though, Boston United scored their second and what would later prove to be the winning goal. Maddie White got her head onto the end of superbly taken corner kick and nodded the ball into the back of the net to give the Pilgrims a firm grip on the game within 13 minutes. Lily-Rose Thompson came close to giving Boston a third a few minutes later, but just lifted the effort over the bar. 

The second half became very much one way traffic, with Boston firing numerous shots at the Grimsby Borough goal, though little to trouble keeper April Flowers too much. Jasmin Adcock, Lily Cook, and Louisa Norkett all got shots away, but weren't able to find the target. The Pilgrims went into the break two goals to the good and firmly in the driving seat.

Boston initially started the second half in similar form, with Louisa Norkett rattling the woodwork from a corner and coming painfully close to a third and decisive goal for the Pilgrims. A revitalised Grimsby Borough began to make a nuisance of themselves, as Ria-Mae Garland received a fantastic through ball to go one-on-one with Boston keeper, Evie Baker. Garland smashed an effort at goal but it was narrowly high and wide of the target, but was enough to show Boston that Grimsby wouldn't be going down without a fight. 

Moments later, Garland got her goal after receiving a pulled back pass and smashed the ball into an empty net to give Borough a lifeline. Boston looked to try and respond quickly after a delivery was lofted into the box and floated towards the Borough goal. The effort was deflected away on the goal line though to keep just one goal separating the two teams. 

Grimsby Borough were very much the stronger of the two teams in the second half, and if it wasn't for the heroics of Evie Baker, they could well have found an equaliser. Brooke Howe smashed an effort at the Pilgrims goal from close range, but Baker incredibly got a hand to it and denied the Grimsby number 10. Despite end to end action, Borough weren't able to find an equaliser and so Boston United Community FC U14 Girls were crowned the 2024 County U14 Girls' Cup champions. 

Andy Donnelly, Manager of Boston United Community FC U14 Girls, said: "I'm over the moon! The girls have worked incredibly hard all season, and capped it off today in what's been a really good game. The first half, we were fantastic. The girls worked really hard to get their two goals, and the second half showed that Grimsby really grew into the game - like we thought they would. It was close at the end, and proved to be a really tight one, so all credit to the girls. 

The second half performance was hard work, although we didn't look after the ball that well, the work rate to try and win it back and get back into shape and position made it really hard for Grimsby. We lost a little bit of shape in the midfield but the girls just did not stop working until the end, and I think they deserved it in the end."

The Player of the Match award was presented by Lincolnshire FA's Football Development Officer (Women & Girls), Kirsty Dixon, and the Match Officials were Isaac Leach, Ashwin Kumar, Samesh Kumar, and Alex Fox. 

The full image gallery, taken by Lincolnshire FA's Official Photographer - Ed Mayes Photography - can be viewed here. 

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