MUSSELBURGH  Windsor under-15 girls team took part in the prestigious Manchester Tournament, which included teams from Manchester United, Manchester City along with teams from other parts of England and a couple of teams from Ireland, writes TOM MILNE.

Not only was this the Windsor girls first season but they were also taking part in an under-16 event, against bigger and older girls. With five matches of 40 minutes in two days it was always going to be a difficult task, but against all the odds the young Windsor girls returned home with the Manchester Challenge Cup, made all the more remarkable when you consider that six of the Windsor girls could have taken part in the under-14 age group.

As part of the trip the girls took in the Manchester United v Sunderland match at Old Trafford, and were part of a Premiership record attendance crowd of 72,596, and little did they know, at the time, but some of the Manchester United stars were about to turn up the next day to watch them in action in their tournament, when Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and John O'Shea all made an appearance.

The Windsor girls worked very hard through two matches on the Saturday and another two on the Sunday to reach the final, and it was a concern that they would have anything left to be able to contest the final against a very strong, and physical side, Glounthaune United from Cork, Ireland. It turned out that there was very little to be concerned about as the girls reserved their best performance for the final and played the match at a very high tempo throughout, so much so, that their much bigger Irish opponents were ‘out on their feet’ long before the end of the match.

The Irish girls took the lead early in the second half, very much against the run of play, and with only 15 minutes remaining there were many in the large Musselburgh support that thought it might just be too much to expect the girls to get back into the game, and that even finishing as runners-up would be a great achievement. That was not a belief that was held by the young Scottish girls as they set about looking for the equaliser, and within five minutes it had arrived. A great run down the left from Dani Buchanan saw her beat two defenders and from the bye-line she played the ball across the face of the goal, it was missed by two defenders and up popped the ever alert Gemma Piaskowski, easily the smallest player in the whole tournament, to despatch a great left shot past the keeper.

The Windsor girls were determined to pick up their first ever trophy and the remainder of the match was played in the Irish half as they launched attack after attack in search of the winner. With only six minutes remaining it duly arrived, when team captain Kim Borthwick collected the ball 30 yards out and forced her way past two defenders before placing the ball wide of the keeper and into the corner of the net from 12 yards, a tremendous goal from a very talented player. The goal sparked off great celebrations on and off the park and even the neutrals watching were willing the Windsor Girls on to victory.

There was no way back for the Irish girls now and on the odd occasion that they did manage to get into the Windsor half, they were repelled by the excellent Musselburgh rearguard, superbly led by the ever reliable Kelsey Campbell. The final whistle went and the Windsor girls had run out worthy and deserved winners of the Manchester Challenge Cup. Just as pleasing as winning the Cup, was the fact that the girls were an absolute credit to Musselburgh Windsor FC.

The goal scorers over the two days were Kim Borthwick 3, Gemma Piaskowski 2, an own goal, and first ever goals for the club for Dani Buchanan and Megan Paterson.

Musselburgh Windsor U/15s girls want  to thank team sponsor, Ian and Lorraine Paterson, of Independent Plant Services, who accompanied us on the trip and provided refreshments for the girls, as well as the vocal support.  Thanks are also due to MECA (Musselburgh East Community Association) for kindly donating the funds to cover the cost of the transport for the trip.