Former Forest star Lisa enjoys Wembley win!

Bowdon finished top of their round-robin group at Bromsgrove School, played between December 13th and January 4th, with five wins, a draw and two defeats.

That put them into the semi-finals, where they beat Canterbury 5-4 after trailing 2-1.

And in the final itself, Bowden - beaten finalists at Wembley a year ago - ran out 4-1 winners against East Grinstead with goals from Holly Hunt, Tina Cullen, and two from Sally Walton.

Bowdon last won the trophy in the 2010-11 season, but since then, the competition has produced nothing but heartbreak for them.

They missed out in the semi-finals of the 2011-12 season thanks to two goals in the last 30 seconds from Sutton Coldfield, and last year the Manchester side went one better and made it the final where they were beaten by Reading.

This time out, their mix of youth and experience saw them to victory at Wembley.

The opening minutes saw both teams equally matched.

The first real chance of the game fell to East Grinstead’s Heather Batten in the sixth minute, but her shot went fractionally wide of goal.

With just under three minutes to go, Hunt broke the deadlock with a well-taken goal from open play.

East Grinstead came out re-energised for the second half and took the attack to Bowdon with the equaliser coming early in the half from captain JoJo Davis with a penalty stroke.

The Sussex side had the chance to take the lead, however, Hightown’s Cullen put her team back in front with a typically clinical finish.

Three minutes later, a further goal from Walton gave them some breathing space.

With two minutes remaining on the clock, a penalty corner gave East Grinstead a chance to close the gap but Davis’ shot was just wide.

Bowdon broke quickly and were awarded a penalty stroke seconds from time.

Despite a return to the field by East Grinstead’s goalkeeper Becky Waters, Walton’s shot found the net and ensured the silverware was heading back to Manchester.

Captain Michelle Liptrot said: “It feels amazing to be champions. We were so disappointed last year when we didn’t really turn up, and this year we’ve trained hard and we’ve done a great job so we’re absolutely delighted.”

“We talked about last year’s performance a lot, but the minute you get out on that pitch what happened last year wasn’t an issue.”