Five first-half goals from Summer Holmes, Anna Morphet, Amber Hughes, and a brace from Ali Miller saw a heavily rotated Wolves side cruise through a goalless second-half to progress into the next round of the FA Women’s National League Cup.
Northampton Town went into the cup tie winless, having conceded 12 goals so far this season and Wolves were eager to take advantage, so from the first minute, Dan McNamara’s side were on the front foot, looking for an early opener.
A plethora of chances saw home goalkeeper Joanna Daniel called into action early. Northampton’s shot-stopper did well to parry a long-range effort from Laura Cooper before awkwardly meeting a bouncing shot from Anna Morphet to clear with her feet.
Ali Miller spearheaded the Wolves line-up, making her first start of the season, and was quickly back in the goals after just eight minutes, picking up the ball on the edge of the area and drilling a low effort which arrowed into the bottom left corner.
Having scored her first of the season, she was quick to double her tally just two minutes later. From the left, Miller fired a shot low across goal, and although Daniel reacted quickly to get a low palm to the ball, the shot was too powerful and trickled across the line.
Shan Turner, back from international duty, was still called upon, despite Wolves’ dominance. Alexandra Dicks found space on the right and tried her luck from range, and as the shot dipped, it forced Turner to backpedal. but to the goalkeeper’s luck, the shot nestled onto the roof of the net.
At the other end however, Wolves continued their relentless pressure and soon found their third of the afternoon. Setting herself up on the right, Anna Morphet curled in a dangerous free-kick which Daniel parried, but the ball fell nicely to the feet of Hughes who tapped into an open net for her seventh goal of the season.
Jade Cross, who celebrated her birthday on Friday, was causing problems with her pace on the left, and she skipped past her marker and was knocked to the floor, the old gold had themselves a penalty. Morphet stepped up and had he spot kick saved by Daniel, but was on hand to knock home the rebound for 4-0.
Just before the whistle blew for half-time, there was enough time for Wolves to score their fifth. Summer Holmes lurked on the edge of the area as Amy Dickens had her shot from point blank ranged saved on the line, but after a spot of pinball around the area, the ball fell to Holmes who, without hesitating, struck the ball first time, rocketing into the top right corner.
Half-time | Northampton 0-5 Wolves
With Wolves 4-0 up, Northampton started the second-half better. Dicks provided problems for Wolves with her directness and darted into the area on the right, forcing Turner into a diving save with a well-struck shot.
For Wolves, substitute Marianne Tahoe, who signed in the summer, came close to opening her account with the club by finding space on the right. She burst into the area and struck a venomous shot, low toward the near post, but it fired into the side netting.
As Wolves saw continued to control the contest, McNamara freshened up his side with a number of substitutions, including Emma Cross who came on to make her 200th appearance for the club.
Beth Merrick went close to giving the travelling fans one more goal to celebrate before the full-time whistle blew. Picking up the ball in her favoured left-wing position, she drove toward the goal line before cutting inside, and at a tight angle, looked to poke a shot past Daniel, but the goalkeeper did well to block the effort and deny Wolves of any second-half goals.
Full-time | Northampton 0-5 Wolves
REACTION
McNamara was pleased with his side’s performance but believed they stepped off the gas in the second half. He said: “Ultimately, we’re pleased. We have a couple of objectives that were to get through to the next round of the cup and to come away without any injuries and we’ve managed to do that on a really difficult surface.
“First-half I thought we were fantastic, I thought we were unplayable. Second-half I thought we stepped off the gas and were quite poor to be honest, especially in the final third we just lacked a bit of cutting edge that we’ve had over the past couple of weeks.
“It’s really difficult at half-time when the game’s done and dusted, it’s really tough to motivate yourselves to go again. Credit to Northampton, they stayed in the game, they were fighting, they were tenacious right until the end, credit to them for the second-half performance.”
On Ali Miller’s performance
“Ali [Miller] is one of several players knocking on the door again now. We’ve got a very good, very big squad here and we’re going to need all those players as the season goes on and today was about rotating the squad to prepare us as best we can for Burnley next week, give opportunities to people who deserve it after the way they perform in training and coming off the bench.
“It was a great occasion to get the minutes in legs that we needed to and rest a couple of player who have had a tough and intense month to start the season off. Overall, we’re delighted and we’re looking forward to the draw tomorrow.”
On Jade Cross’ work rate
“All the players know my philosophy and the way we like to do it at Wolves, and we’ve got to be the same in possession as we are out of possession, and you get that off Jade [Cross] all the time. She’s tenacious, she just loves running. She works hard in everything she does so I’m really pleased with her performance, she was excellent in that wide role and combined with the forward play as well.”
On Emma Cross’ 200th appearance
“We were laughing and joking whether she’d come on to get that out the way. I don’t want to disrespect it by saying getting it out the way, anyone who makes 200 appearances for a club gets the ultimate respect from myself. She’s a joy to work with, I’m delighted for her, and we’ll take that into next week and we’ll reward her for an astonishing achievement.
“I think she joins a couple of legends with 200 appearances, like Anne Fries [Johnson] and Anna Price and her sister as well. At the age she is there’s no reason why she can’t go on and make another 200 appearances for the club. It’s fantastic for Emma [Cross] and we can’t wait to celebrate that back home next week.”
COMING UP
Having played just one home game this season, Wolves are now set to have three on the bounce, with high-rising Burnley the first of the bunch to play next at the New Bucks Head Stadium. With that in mind, McNamara was eager to get more supporters in the stands for this run of fixtures.
“The next three games are all at home and we’ve got a bit of consistency to start getting people through the gate. 419 of them came last time and they were fantastic the girls really felt it. The girls can build on that now it’s a great platform for us to build on and then it’s the Black Country derby on Wednesday evening, so we want to start seeing some consistency in the attendances.
“There are some big, big numbers going around in the national league at the minute and there’s no reason why we can’t start to reach those numbers. It’ll be tough, Burnley are a tough side, they’ve invested a lot over the summer, they’ve brought in a top, top manager from the WSL.
“It’s going to be tough, we need all the support we can do and as we’ve talked about we need to start creating a fortress at Telford, the home games are the important ones. Hopefully, they’ll turn out to watch a team who are really at it at the moment, and we can take that into next week.”
NEXT FIVE
02/10 Burnley (H)
09/10 Boldmere St. Michaels (H)
12/12 West Brom (H)
23/10 Derby County (A)
6/11 Brighouse Town (H)
TEAMS
Northampton | Daniel, Luttman, Barrett, Noble (Mumford 45), Wait, Reboul (Brewin 63), Bailey, Warren, Artemiou (Omenazu 45), Dicks (Richards 70), Boote.
Unused subs: Farrow
Wolves | Turner, Cooper, Morphet (E. Cross 83), Price, Elsmore, J. Cross (Merrick 55), Hughes (George 63), Dickin, Holmes (Johnson 55), Miller, Bennett-Steele (Tahoe 63).
