Lexi Crawley: When it comes to scoring goals, she’s simply the best

Lexi celebrates scoring in the Inter-Island Games for Ynys Môn. Picture: Dai Sinclair

It has been five years since I conducted a Female Focus interview with Lexi Crawley.

A lot has changed since then – including her name!

The Anglesey goal machine was known as Lexi Musgrave until she married James Crawley on March 9, 2017 – the day after her 24th birthday.

Oh and I must mention the dog Hugo, who has also emerged since 2015 (and has since been joined by Lola!).

So let’s take a look back at Lexi’s football career so far.

Alexia Musgrave started playing football aged six and her talents developed over a number of years, leading to her selection for Welsh Colleges while a student at Coleg Menai in her teens.

She played in a number of prestigious internationals, including matches against England Colleges and Australia.

The start of the second decade of the new millennium was a good time for Lexi as she was part of a very strong Caernarfon Town squad.

She joined the club as a 16-year-old, and in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Cofis won the Welsh Premier Women’s League North Conference title back-to-back.

This meant Town twice reached the national Women’s Welsh Premiership championship final which offered the prize of a place in the Uefa Women’s Champions League.

Although Caernarfon lost both finals to Swansea City, who also beat them in the 2011 Welsh Cup final, these were very exciting times for a young Lexi Musgrave.

Lexi (fourth left – back) lines up with Caernarfon Town after their 2010-11 double

Playing alongside these experienced Caernarfon players did much for Lexi’s development. She mentioned back in 2015 how Iona Williams was one particularly inspirational figure.

After leaving Caernarfon, Lexi joined Wrexham Ladies and spent three seasons with the Welsh Premier side.

The islander scored some important goals for the Dragons, who by then had established themselves as North Wales’ strongest female team.

Although she began the 2015-16 season at Amlwch Town, Lexi returned to Caernarfon Town in the closing months.

She came on as a sub for the Cofis in the Betty Pickering Cup final and scored within two minutes of taking the field to secure a 1-0 win over former team Amlwch.

At the start of 2016-17, Lexi was back at Amlwch, marking her return with a hat-trick in an opening day 6-3 victory over newly-formed Bangor City.

Next to benefit from Lexi’s skills were Bangor, who she signed for in the 2017-18 season.

She netted 22 times in that campaign, sharing a 50-goal partnership with teenage sensation Ceri Lois.

Lexi (blue) has scored 37 goals in the past one-and-a-bit seasons for Amlwch. Picture: Gethin Jones

With Bangor disbanded, Lexi rejoined Amlwch in 2018-19 and finished top-scorer on 17 goals.

She also grabbed the winner as Town won their first major trophy, beating Wrexham 2-1 in the Supplementary Cup final at Rhyl.

And the curtailed 2019-20 campaign was another blockbuster in the goals department for Lexi, who scored 20 in all competitions as Amlwch lifted the North Wales Women’s League Division Two title.

Lexi (furthest right) with Ynys Môn team-mates Ceri Lois (left) and Cerys Gadd (centre). The trio played together for Bangor City in 2017-18 and scored LOTS of goals between them

No article about Lexi is complete without mentioning the 2019 Inter-Island Games.

Before the tournament, Anglesey’s women had only ever won one match in 14 attempts.

However, on their home island, Ynys Môn’s girls were a sensation, getting all the way to the final only to lose 2-1 to Isle of Man.

Lexi was top-scorer in the ladies tournament with five goals.

She grabbed a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Western Isles, scored once in a 3-2 loss to Hitra, and also bagged the decider in a 1-0 semi-final success against Jersey.

The 27-year-old may well have been more influential in the final but for injury.

That tournament summed up Lexi Crawley in one word – goals.

She has always scored regularly for all her teams, against any calibre of opposition and at all levels.

A true star of the female game in Wales.

Lexi and her sister Paige. This photo is probably about 5 years old, but they’ve not changed much. Paige, 25, has played alongside Lexi most of her career as well as being an Ynys Môn star too.