Birmingham & West Midlands Ladies 0
Wolves Women 2 (J.Cross 47, Shirley 81)
Report by Callum Doughty, photograph by Simon Faulkner
Despite dominating most of the play during the first-half, Wolves were unable to make a breakthrough. They went close on a number of occasions but could not make their dominance count.
Lowri Walker came the closest to breaking the deadlock when her shot from distance rattled the crossbar.
Wolves finally got on the score sheet in the early stages of the second-half when Walker played in Jade Cross, who proceeded to lob the ball over the goalkeeper from the edge of the area.
The away side kept pushing and were soon rewarded for their efforts when they doubled their lead. Jade Cross was involved once again, this time turning provider for Shirley who was able to prod the ball home from close range.
While it could have been more on the day, the two goals were enough to see Wolves safely through to the next round.
MOMENT OF THE MATCH
Wolves’ breakthrough goal was the biggest moment in this game. They had pushed and pushed in the first-half but were not able to find a way through, so to get a goal so early in the second-half put them in a fantastic position and set them on their way to victory.
QUOTES
Wolves boss Dan McNamara said: "I’m absolutely delighted for the girls today. It was a difficult one, we’ve got a lot of injuries, we’ve got eight first team players not available for selection.
"We had outstanding desire, great attitude, great character. They just gave me everything out there today and I thought we were tremendous.’’
TEAMS
Birmingham & West Midlands | Turner; Morris, Hargreaves, Steel, Bracelli, Jennings, Torkildsen, Gallop, Bryan, Fisher, Weston
Unused subs | Bell, Evans, McCready, Gibson, Bacciochi
Wolves | Clarke, Widdal (C), E.Cross, Anslow, Barnett, Jones, George, Haynes, J.Cross, Walker (Shirley), Jennings (Criddle)
Unused subs | Elbro, Wilkie, Mumford
