When the third round draw of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup was made, there was an almost inevitable sense that Wolves would be paired with Nottingham Forest.
A recent third tier league rivalry defined by title races, promotion battles and goal difference was being renewed again, but this time in the cup.
However, when the teams meet each other once again on Saturday 13th December at Hednesford Town’s Keys Park, there will be one key difference, Forest legend Lyndsey Harkin will be on the other side.
After captaining her hometown club for several years, anchoring the back line through derby days, FA Cup runs and promotion into the second tier, Harkin moved to Wolves in the summer.
It was a shift between two ambitious clubs whose rivalry has intensified across the past five seasons, as both pushed to be playing WSL2 football.
Yet the switch never diluted her connection to the club she grew up supporting. She remains a Forest ambassador, still rooted in a family of Reds, and now, only months removed from her final appearance at the City Ground, she finds herself preparing to face the club that she gave most of her footballing career to.
And she’ll be doing this in a match that marks a landmark moment for the women’s game – the first ever Women’s FA Cup tie to be shown live on Channel 4. If the footballing gods were trying to create a spectacle, they’ve succeeded.
But for Harkin, the emotions ahead of Saturday’s tie aren’t ones of confliction, “To be honest, I think it’s just excitement,” she said.
“There’s been so many battles between the sides over the years that it’s such a great fixture to be in the third round of the FA Cup. I think it’s just exciting all round really.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s excitement, and it brings that sort of edge to it. So many of the fixtures between the two teams have been really close over the years and we’ve always been rivals in the league, so we know it’s going to be a good challenge.”
The two teams have been inseparable foes in recent seasons – sometimes literally side-by-side in title races, often separated by only a point or two in the table, and even goal difference has been used to split the teams.
Harkin, captaining Forest, going up against now-Wolves teammate Amber Hughes in September 2021
With Dan McNamara’s Wolves now consisting of several recent Reds, including Harkin, Charlotte Greengrass, Becky Anderson and Amy Sims, among others, this familiarity made the tie feel almost destined to happen.
“Before the draw came out, me and a few of the girls were talking, and I just knew it was going to happen. I just had a feeling.
“I guess because we’ve been playing each other for so long, it’s kind of inevitable that Wolves and Forest wouldn’t go a season without playing each other, but it was still kind of funny when it did come out.
“There’s quite a lot of us in this Wolves team who have played for both teams, so I think it just brings that little bit of extra excitement. We’ve had two tough fixtures already in the FA Cup, so I think we knew another tough one was coming.
“With the history between the two teams, I guess it just had to be Forest, who are probably one of the best sides that are in the draw right now with the WSL2 sides coming in at this stage, but for me, it’s just an exciting game, a challenge, but one we’re all looking forward to.”
There have been several memorable battles between the teams in recent seasons. Wolves’ remarkable 4-3 comeback at New Bucks Head in 2023/24 – in which the hosts were 3-0 down heading into the final half hour – will go down in Wolves Women folklore.
But ask Harkin for a favourite memory of facing Wolves with Forest, and she has a much different response, Forest’s 4-0 cup win at Castlecroft two years previously might not be one Wolves fans enjoy remembering, but for her, it was one of those afternoons where everything clicked for her side.
That season Wolves were nearly untouchable, storming through the league after promotion, and falling short on reaching the second tier in a play-off against Southern champs Southampton, yet Forest found the perfect cup performance on the perfect day.
“The one that sticks out the most was in the FA Cup in 2021, when Forest went to Wolves and ended up winning 4-0.
“It was a bit of a shock result at the time because it was the season when Wolves had just come up but were winning every game in the league. But everything just seemed to click for us in that game.
“I’m pretty sure that same season, Wolves beat us twice in the league on their way to the title, so it was quite a significant result for Forest at the time. That one was quite a pleasing one to be on the right end of with Forest at the time.”
Harkin attempting to dispossess Jade Cross in Forest's 4-0 FA Cup win at Castlecroft in April 2021
But now she’ll be wearing gold and black in this fixture for the first time, Harkin is approaching the game with calm pragmatism rather than sentimentality.
“To be honest, I’ve not thought too much about it, because really, it’s just a game of football and that’s how we’re all going to be treating it.
“It’s not about me, it’s not about the other girls who have played for Forest, it’s about the team, it’s about the club and it’s about trying to progress in the FA Cup.
“I know there’s going to be all this interest around it, but I don’t think it brings anything else other than that.
“It’s another game that’s going to be on telly, which is exciting again, so for everyone involved it’s a big game, and a chance to try and progress in the FA Cup, which ultimately both sides are going to want to do, so it’s important for everyone.”
If the personal storyline isn’t enough to elevate this fixture, another TV first certainly does, with the game set to be beamed into millions of homes via Channel 4.
For the women’s game, and particularly for tiers three and four, it is a landmark moment. For Wolves, it’s a second consecutive televised FA Cup appearance after their second round win over Stoke City aired live on TNT Sports.
Coverage of the lower tiers has long lagged behind the Women’s Super League and WSL2, so being part of women’s football broadcasting history hasn’t just been a novelty, but a statement of visibility, and Harkin understands how vital that is.
“The game we had against Stoke on the telly was great, but when you’re in it, you obviously don’t know what’s being shown, you don’t know how it’s being covered, but a few of us watched it back, or at least watched snippets of it, and the way TNT covered it was really good, really eye catching.
“I think people watching it might have really enjoyed getting to know a bit about the players and then it was a good game as well. Hopefully it brings that sort of opportunity for girls and young kids to watch the game and sort of see what they can be. We always say, if you can see it, you can be it, and it’s just that.
“The opportunity to do that is huge for the women’s game, and also for there to be coverage down into tier three is really important, because it’s not very visible at times, and the more we can do to make that happen is really important for the growth and the exposure of the game, because it’s growing massively.
“You’ve seen the quality of the players ‘dropping down’ in the summer, but that shows the quality across the board. It’s going up and up. We’ve seen how competitive tier three is, but I think even more so this season, with how tight the results are.
“We played Derby the other weekend and although we won 2-0, it was such a tight game, yet they’re towards the bottom of the league. But it’s like that across the board, the game’s just growing and growing and becoming more competitive, which is only going to get everyone better and be even more exciting to watch.”
On Saturday, the Lyndsey Harkin story will be at the forefront – a player facing her past, history colliding with the present, but for the player herself, it’s simply another football match, and another chance to extend Wolves’ winning streak to 17 matches.
“We know it’s going to be a tough one, but it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to. We’re doing well this season so far, so we’re going to go into it with a bit of belief in ourselves.
“We set ourselves a target at the start of the year to try and be in as many competitions as possible come to Christmas, so it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s one we’re really looking forwards to, and we’re hoping to get the result that we want, so let’s see how it goes.”
