Wolves Women reached the final of the Birmingham County Cup in convincing fashion as they swept aside Birmingham and West Midlands Ladies at the CKW Stadium.
Wolves dominated the first-half, but did not test Birmingham goalkeeper Shan Turner as much as they perhaps should have. The first chance fell to Jade Cross, whose header forced Turner into a fantastic reaction save just past the 15-minute mark.
The deadlock was eventually broken in the 36th minute when Pip Wilson poked home from close range following a corner to give Wolves the advantage going into half-time.
Then, an instant impact from Wolves substitute Jamila Palmer put the game beyond doubt. The dominant midfielder doubled the home side’s lead just three minutes after coming on when she arrowed the ball into the bottom corner from 12 yards out.
Just two minutes after that, Palmer was at it again as she produced a carbon copy of the goal she had just scored to make it 3-0.
For there, Wolves continued to control the game and saw out the result to reach the Birmingham County Cup final against West Bromwich Albion.
Reaction
Manager Dan McNamara was thrilled about his side reaching the County Cup final, saying: “It’s brilliant and a great achievement. I think it’s been a long time since Wolves were in a County Cup final so it’s a fantastic achievement and hopefully the start of a great few months for the club. I’m really proud of the players and to keep another clean sheet is fantastic too.”
Palmer was the star of the afternoon once again, bagging a brace off the bench. Naturally, McNamara was full of praise for Palmer and explained his reasoning behind leaving her out of the starting 11. He said: “After TNS [The New Saints] in midweek, when she was fantastic again, it was difficult to leave her out but we had a game plan and Pip Wilson came in and did fantastically well, I thought she was superb at doing what we asked her to do.”
Wolves return to league action in two weeks’ time and McNamara knows the importance of not getting carried away after Sunday’s victory. He said: “I've just said to the girls that we enjoy it this evening, stick the date in our diaries and then move on and forget about it. We’ve got to work hard; we still need to find four wins in the league I think, but we’ve got a week off which we’ll enjoy and the girls will recover in. Then we’ll be ready to go against Donny Belles and Leicester United in the two next league games.”
Coming up
Wolves have a week’s break before they travel to mid-table Doncaster Rovers Belles in the league.
Next five
8/03/20 | Doncaster Rovers Belles (A)
15/03/20 | Leicester United WFC (A)
22/03/20 | Solihull (H)
25/03/20 | Sporting Khalsa (H)
29/03/20 | Bedworth (H)
Teams
Wolves Women: Elbro, Widdal (Jones 74), E Cross, Morphet, Jennings (Bruton 74), Wilson (Edwards 84), Walker (Keitley 70), Barnett (Haynes 60), Edwards (Palmer 60), Bramford, J Cross.
Unused subs: None
Birmingham and West Midlands Ladies: Turner, Conlan, Liddiard, Cooper, Riden, Scott, White, Dickinson, Kirk, Rodgers, Bacciochi.
Unused subs: Steele.
Report by Jonny Drake.
