Arsenal win title decider on Akers swansong

Vic Akers's hugely successful 22-year reign as Arsenal LFC manager came to a happy end on Sunday when a 1-0 win at Everton LFC secured a sixth successive FA Women's Premier League title.

Grant winner
The Gunners headed to Widnes needing a victory to pip the Toffees – who had ended Arsenal's 108-game unbeaten league run in March – to the title, and triumphed thanks to Suzanne Grant's first-half goal. Akers was not in attendance, however, as the decider clashed with his commitments as kit manager for the men's team, beaten 4-1 at home by Chelsea FC in the Premier League. The 62-year-old took his place on the bench for the final time last Monday, a 2-1 FA Women's Cup final triumph against Sunderland WFC in Derby. Both Arsenal and Everton will enter the inaugural UEFA Women's Champions League next season with the capital club excused the qualifying round and going into the knockout Round of 32.

Honours
Akers set up the Arsenal women's team in 1987 and in that time won eleven league titles, ten FA Cups and ten League Cups – all records. His crowning glory, perhaps, came in 2007 when his side became the only club from outside Germany or Sweden to lift the UEFA Women's Cup. This season's league and FA Cup double was Arsenal's fourth in a row, and it was the fifth campaign in which they have lifted both trophies and also the League Cup. His successor is due to be named shortly.

Tributes
Captain Faye White told the Guardian: "Vic had a vision for the women's game and he's worked 24/7 at making it happen. He developed the links with the men's club and always fought for the backing that we've now got – and he made us the best team in the country." Everton manager Mo Marley added: "Vic never saw women's football as a route to better things in the men's game. He always saw it as parallel to his work with the Arsenal men. It's a compliment from him to the women's game that he's enthused about it for more than 20 years and he's done a brilliant job."