Ilminster Town Ladies First team were crowned champions of the Western Division in the Southwest Regional Women Football League last week.

The league win was confirmed after Ilminster drew with third place Helston Athletic a week on Saturday and they have since been revelling in anticipation for the final whistle of the season to finally be able to lift the trophy after 18 league games.

Ilminster’s season started off strong with a 6-3 away win over Bideford and from there they didn’t look back.

A 4-1 win over Helston, a 2-0 win over league runners-up Saltash and a 5-0 win over Sticker Women contributed to a five-game win streak in the league to start the season, as well as some big wins in the cup.

After a loss to title rivals Helston in their sixth league game of the season and a heavy but educating beating by Plymouth Argyle Firsts in the cup, Ilminster would go on to lose just one game in all competitions for the rest of the season.

The run included a 10-1 win over Bideford, an 11-0 win over Middlezoy, and tight 4-3 victory over Royal Wootton Basset Town in the quarters of the cup.

Ilminster also made the final of the divisional cup after their win over Royal Basset having beaten AEK Boco Firsts in the semi-finals, but the date for the last game is yet to be confirmed.

Having done everything they could in end-of-season run in Ilminster knew a draw in the final game against title rivals Helston would mathematically give them the title even with other team’s having fixtures to play, and they did just that.

A solid defensive performance to earn a 0-0 draw capped off a stellar season that was often more about how many goals they could score, rather than having to stop their opposition.

In fact, throughout their 2023/24 campaign, Ilminster scored 101 goals across all competitions whilst only conceding 35, with 13 of those coming against the much higher-level Plymouth Argyle.

The biggest contributor to the team’s goals was Jodi Cornwall who netted 31 times in just 22 appearances this season, numbers that put her goals-to-game ratio at a staggering 1.4 goals/game.

Cornwall’s 31 goals were also enough to see her claim the league’s golden boot, two goals ahead of closest challenger Tori Marks of Sticker Firsts.

Ilminster Ladies will now await news of their cup final, and then head into the 2024/25 season with even more silverware on their mind.