Wolves were triumphant away from home and won the Pygott and Crone cup after recovering from an early setback against a tough Lincoln City side on Sunday afternoon.
A hat-trick from Alisha Miller, plus a fourth from Leo Joyce, turned the game on its head as Dan McNamara’s side ensured they finished the tournament with a 100 per cent record.
The hosts took an early lead in the second minute from a corner, with Mary Cooper heading the hosts in front and giving them the perfect start.
Lincoln continued to put the pressure on in the opening stages, making it difficult for Wolves to create chances, until Nyah Edwards came close to equalising. Unfortunately, her effort went just wide of the post.
Wolves equalised 10 minutes before the break; Miller powerfully converted from a close-range rebound following an Anna Morphet free-kick to put the score level.
Wolves took the lead right before the stroke of half time, with Alisha Miller scoring from distance to get her second goal, which made all the difference going into the break.
Wolves came out confident in the second half, but Lincoln piled on the pressure and got the equaliser through Leah Hardy from another corner.
The game continued with both sides constantly battling for the ball until Miller put herself on the scoresheet for the third time, striking the ball into the back of the net from inside the box and giving Wolves the lead with 20 minutes to go.
The goals kept coming, as substitute Joyce guided the ball into the back of the net to give Wolves breathing space. Joyce has now scored in two consecutive fixtures after scoring on her debut last week.
The game came to a close, with Wolves coming out on top on the afternoon and in the tournament standings after three back-to-back victories.
REACTION
Despite what Wolves manager Dan McNamara said was a slow start to the game, he believed his side got a grip of the game after going 1-0 down.
He said: “In the end I think we were deserved winners, said McNamara after the 4-2 win. It was a good game in the end; great one to watch and a little bit less entertaining than the last time we were down here.
“We had to deal with it and sweep it under the carpet as quick as we could and go again and I think the girls did that,” said McNamara when talking about falling behind early on. “They created chances throughout the whole 90 minutes and, in the end, we managed to be clinical on four of those occasions.”
McNamara was impressed with Joyce’s impact on the game and said: “Leo is a young girl who’s currently finding her way in the game and she’s a really big talent. She’s got a lot of potential and we’re just trying to help her along the way, but she’s been fantastic since she’s come into the environment.
“We wanted to try and maximise the playing time and we wanted something a bit more than just friendlies so this competitive competition put together by us and Lincoln was just what we needed. You enter every competition wanting to win it, so fantastic for the girls and hopefully we can get a good result next week.”
TEAMS
Wolves | Turner, Widdal, Price, E. Cross, George, J. Cross, Palmer, Holmes, Morphet, Miller, Edwards.
Lincoln | Timson, Chambers, Kay, Cooper, Thornley, Thomas, Blinkhorn, Hardy, Atkinson, Rousseau, Wilcock.
By Megan Garbutt
