ARSENAL made the May Day Bank Holiday weekend their own when the women's team lifted the FA Cup just 23 hours after the men had won the Premiership - and they did it in equally exciting fashion.
Although the standard of play was often poor, Arsenal and Croydon battled out a very equal London derby at Millwall's Den ground before the Gunners triumphed 3-2 thanks to Kelley Few's scrambled injury time winner.
They may just have deserved it because they had the brighter attacking duo in England veteran Marieanne Spacey and youngster Rachel Yankey, who looked like a female Ian Wright; slight, athletic, quick and bustling.
Both scored after Jo Broadhurst had put Croydon ahead with a 10th minute penalty. Seven minutes later, Yankey put in a great right-wing cross that Spacey mis-hit on the volley but the ball looped onto the near post and spun over the line.
Yankey could have scored on the verge of half-time but mis-kicked two yards out but two minutes after the break she broke past a square defence and rounded the 'keeper to score her 14th goal of the season.
But on 54 minutes Croydon were level. England's new manager Hope Powell, playing her last major game before retiring, chased a loose back-pass and was rewarded with a simple tap-in after the goalkeeper's panicky clearance rebounded into space.
Powell nearly won it six minutes from time with a 35-yard free-kick that drifted inches over. Carol Harwood had been booked for the initial foul and could have been sent , but instead she was there to miskick the rebound when Spacey's curling 92nd minute free-kick was pushed onto the bar and Few headed over from a foot out to win the Cup.
Arsenal can make it a cup treble if they win the London FA Cup against Millwall tomorrow. And the watching Arsene Wenger thought his side had done well!

LENNON WANTS END TO SHEARER AFFAIR LEICESTER CITY'S Neil Lennon, at the centre of allegations that he was kicked in the face by Alan Shearer, has pleaded with the Football Association to abandon plans to investigate the incident. The Newcastle and England striker has insisted the clash during last Wednesday's FA Carling Premiership match at Filbert Street was an accident and that television replays make it look worse than it was. ''As far as I and the club are concerned this is done and dusted. I am disappointed to hear that the FA want to keep it going,'' he told the Daily Mail. ''I have had this all week and I just want to forget about it and concentrate on playing football. I am fine now and it will be a shame if the FA charge him.'' FA chief executive Graham Kelly is expected to discuss the incident with leading officials later this week. He is determined not to sweep it under the carpet but is also anxious to make sure there is no witch-hunt against the England captain. Shearer has maintained that he has never deliberately tried to hurt a player in his career and has been backed by manager Kenny Dalglish. Martin O'Neill expressed a similar view to Lennon on Saturday. While maintaining that the offence merited a red card at the time, he made clear this was not intended as an attack on Shearer's character.

CITY GIVEN WRONG MEDALS BRISTOL CITY players had insult added to injury yesterday when they were presented with the Second Division winners' medals - even though they didn't win the title! The Robins lost out to Watford in the race for Second Division title after their 2-1 defeat at Preston on Sunday but were forced to consider what could have been when the winners' medals were mistakenly sent to Bristol instead of North London. But City vice-chairman John Laycock joked: "We're going to keep them for next year." Thousands of fans lined the streets of Bristol to pay tribute to manager John Ward and his players who went through the charade of accepting the wrong medals for the sake of the supporters. Bristol midfielder Matt Hewlett said: ''The mistake with the medals had been spotted before the presentation so we picked them up and then gave them straight back.''

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