RNAS Culdrose Ladies recorded their first victory for nearly three years when they won at St Breward on Sunday.

The Phoenixes ended a run of 931 days without a win when they won 7-4 in their Earthbound Electrical Cornwall Women’s Football League Division 2 game, moving off the bottom of the table as a result.

The team’s top-scorer Sophie Colebourn scored twice to take her tally to seven for the season, while Jess Chapman also scored two with further goals from Ruby Walker, Morgan Murray and Caitland Stanton ensuring the landmark result.

The team’s last recorded victory came 748 days earlier on September 18, 2016 when they were awarded a walkover in their opening game of the 2016/17 season against St Teath.

But you have to go back to April 24 of the same year to find the team’s last competitive win, a 2-1 victory at Mousehole in their final game of the 2015/16 season, some 931 days before Sunday’s triumph.

The team has tasted defeat 38 times – including a 40-0 loss at home to Helston Ladies in December 2016 which gained national newspaper interest – since that day and failed to fulfil a further five matches, which puts the achievement of Sunday’s win in an even greater light.

The club praised the team’s achievement in a post-match tweet, which said: “931 days since their last competitive win, including being in @DailyMirror for losing by over 30 goals in a derby game, they have won again. Thanks to the footy mums that kept it alive during the difficult times. Awesome Ladies!”

Sunday’s match was only manager Ian “George” Pattison’s second game in charge, and the experienced local referee was delighted with the positive attitude his new team had displayed.

He said: “I hadn’t managed in ten, 12 years and working with them is fantastic and it gives me the foundation to want to do more.

“My first hope was to get that first win and they got that on Sunday and it was fantastic for them.

“In my first game against St Agnes [last week] we went 1-0 up and it shocked them, they thought ‘what’s going on here’, and I said to them ‘just believe in yourselves.’”

Pattison also paid tribute to predecessor Ciaran Nash, who recently stepped down from the role due to work commitments and played a pivotal and dedicated role in keeping the team going.

  • The Phoenixes’ next match is their Cornwall FA Women’s Cup first round tie at St Stephens Borough Ladies on Sunday (ko 2pm).