South-West Women Eastern Division
Cheltenham Town Ladies Development 2, Ilminster Town Ladies 3

A LATE strike from Sarah Miller gave Ilminster a vital victory which sees them move up to third in the table.

The bare 11 travelled to Tewksbury, making it a tough encounter from the off.

A full debut was handed out to 16-year-old Katie Clark.

Both teams took a while to settle on the 3G surface and in the cold conditions.

It was Cheltenham who broke the deadlock on the half-hour with the aid of young Ilminster centre half Daisy Charles, whose rushed clearance saw the ball loop over Town keeper Kath Parsons from 35 yards out.

Ilminster started the second half the brighter side, creating numerous scoring chances in the early stages.

It only took until the 55th minute for in-form Town striker Shannon Crouch to run in between the two covering Cheltenham defenders and smash the equaliser past the keeper.

However, it only took just five minutes for Cheltenham to regain the lead after indecision between Parsons and Dana Andrews allowed the Cheltenham striker to nip in and volley the ball past Parsons.

The next 15 minutes saw Town have a lot of the ball and, in the 80th minute, Town made the game 2-2, as Crouch pounced again.

This time the ball went down the left hand side, Maisie Poole played the ball across the box and, from around 10 yards out, Crouch ran onto the ball to equalise again.

The winner came just five minutes later, this time through captain Sarah Miller.

The ball found its way into the box after several deflections, but the final touch was the important one.

Miller picked the ball up 15 yards from goal, took one touch and hit the ball precisely into the top left-hand corner with her left foot.

This was the end of the action and it saw Town win three more points, putting them into third place and in with a shout of promotion.

Player of the game was Maisie Poole.

Ilminster take on top-of-the-league Forest Green Rovers on Sunday at the Archie Gooch ground (ko 2pm).

Ilminster Reserves were without a game at the weekend and travel to Cheddar on Sunday.