Women's report | Shrewsbury 2-8 Wolves

14th November 2022

Shrewsbury Town 2 (Jones 24, Rimmer 72) Wolves 8 (Gauntlett 10, Merrick 20, Dermody 28, Hughes 30, 70, 89, Morphet 42, 74)

Wolves Women progressed through to the second round of the Women’s FA Cup in style with a ten-goal thriller as they beat Shrewsbury Town Women 8-2 at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

Wolves had five different goal scorers register in Shropshire, with Amber Hughes continuing her impressive season so far with a hat-trick, while Anna Morphet finished with a brace and Maz Gauntlett, Beth Merrick and Helen Demody all netted to help the old gold through.

Shrewsbury, who sit two tiers below Wolves in the pyramid, had a bright start to the game, forcing Bec Thomas into an early save. Libby Veitch slotted Zoe Child through on goal, splitting the Wolves defence down the middle, and the forward forced Thomas to save on the stretch.

Dan McNamara’s side would soon show warning signs of their own as Tammi George hit a dangerous strike goalward inside the area, which Phoebe Carter parried, but only to the feet of Gauntlett who followed up but struck the crossbar.

The forward made up for her missed chance just minutes later, however. After bringing down a Merrick cross inside the area, Wolves’ number eight bullied her way through several defenders before smashing in from close range.

Merrick would then turn from provider to scorer as she struck a trademark right-footed effort from the left wing – her effort, from outside the area, curled into the bottom right corner following some intricate play between Gauntlett and Tammi George.

The hosts replied with a long-range goal of their own, as Maddie Jones collected the ball on the left and replicated Merrick’s goal, but this time smashing in off the far-right post, reducing the deficit to one goal.

Two quick goals from Helen Dermody and Hughes would soon put Wolves back in control and Dermody would be the first to add her name to the score sheet by ending some penalty box pinball and bagging from close range. Then, two minutes later, Hughes hit another point-blank effort past Carter in goal.

Finally, Morphet would finish an emphatic half for Wolves by scoring directly from a corner, bringing an impressive 45 minutes to an end.

Half-time | Shrewsbury Town 1 – 5 Wolves

Wolves opened the second half with two clear-cut chances which went begging. Hughes failed to jinx the ball around Carter in goal before George couldn’t slot her one-on-one chance around the Shrewsbury shot-stopper.

Hughes, eager to correct her mistake, tried again to ghost past the goalkeeper and would this time succeed, creating an angle for herself, gliding past Carter and slotting into an open net.

Wolves would continue to pile on the pressure on the Shrewsbury goal but not before the hosts gained a goal back for themselves. Former Wolves defender, Leanne Rimmer, collected the ball inside the opposing half and hit an audacious strike, which looped high in the air and caught Thomas off her line to give the Shrews their second.

However, the visitors were quick to cancel out the goal, this time from the penalty spot. Hughes, jinxing around in the area once more, was brought to the ground. Morphet stepped up and placed her penalty down the middle sending Carter the wrong way.

Just before the full-time whistle, Hughes finished off the game by getting her hat-trick. Jade Cross, who had been an outlet all afternoon down the right wing, drilled a ball across the box to find Hughes darting toward the near post. In her stride, she slotted the ball in to finish off a dominant afternoon for Wolves.

Full-time | Shrewsbury Town 2-8 Wolves

REACTION

After receiving the manager of the month award, McNamara was pleased for his side progressing through to the next round of the Women’s FA Cup but believed there are improvements his side can make.

He said: “The positive is we are into the next round. It would be easy for me to stand here and say I thought we were good but I thought Shrewsbury gave a really good account of themselves, they looked really lively in moments and got a really good goal in the first half and a great finish in the second half. I was disappointed in our performance but take nothing away from Shrewsbury I thought they were really good today.”

On scoring early on

“It sets the tone, I thought we were a little bit flat today. From the first whistle, we lacked that bit of quality in certain moments. There were some great finishes and goals, Amber [Hughes] got herself a hattrick, fantastic for her, but ultimately the positive is we got into the next round.”

On having four different goal scorers

“We say it all the time, we want goals to come from across the pitch and that’s happened today. As I said Amber [Hughes] did what Amber does and scored three, Maz [Gauntlett] popped up with one, [Anna] Morphet’s got a couple so it was fantastic. I think there were a few people who should’ve added to the tally but it doesn’t go your way all the time.”

COMING UP

Wolves have a handful of cup fixtures in the upcoming weeks and with a busy schedule ahead, McNamara was keen to get his whole squad involved, he said: “We’ll approach it the same as we always do. It gives us an opportunity to rotate, there are players who need minutes. The ones who didn’t come on will be disappointed today but they’ll get their opportunity in the upcoming weeks. We’ve got cup games coming thick and fast so we’ll keep going and we’ll keep finding a way.”

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