Wolves Women Thread

[Law's Bus]

So, could the players cope with the Tuesday night in Stoke? With the pressures of a derby game to boot?

You bet they could.

A second successive 5-0 victory was the result, with goals from Katie Johnson, Maz Gauntlett, Destiney Toussant, Amber Hughes and Beth Merrick, putting us top of the table - although if Burnley win tonight they'll go back above us. A +10 goal difference isn't bad at all after three games, and the personal golden boot competition between Hughes and Gauntlett currently stands at 3-2.

Next game is the first home game of the season at Telford United on Sunday at 2pm. It doesn't clash with the men's first team, and tickets are available from https://afctelfordunited.ticketco.events, and there's a link from the main Wolves ticket purchase page, right at the bottom. Prices are £4 adult, £3 concessions, £1 for under 16s and free for STHs of both Wolves and Telford. You can pay on the door, but it'll cost a whole extra £1. Parking is £3, but make sure you don't accidentally park in the hotel car park right in front of the main stand as they get very stroppy (and expensive) about that sort of thing.

Come along and see a Wolves team who can both score and keep clean sheets...

 

[Law's Bus]

So, let's talk about today's game against Loughborough Lightning.

Wolves Women missed an utter boatload of excellent chances to end up with a disappointing 4-0 victory

More seriously, it was one of those games where you feared for the final result for a while. We all know the ones, opposition barely get into our half, crosses fizzing in from both wings all slightly in front of the attackers or slightly behind them; penalty area scrambles where three or four attempts all get blocked in quick succession; your centre-forward takes a beautiful angled touch only to see the ball drift agonisingly the wrong side of the post; where you lose one of your best players to injury after only six minutes played. But then the players kept going, never giving up and goals from Katie Johnson (x2), Amber Hughes and Destiney Toussaint leading to a comfortable victory, which included a 15 minute cameo debut from 16-year-old Skye Owen who has only stepped up into the Reserves squad this season; and Amber Hughes continuing her goal-a-game record.

Some really good performances from the likes of Beth Merrick and Destiney Toussaint on each wing, and some "crunching" tackles from Tammi George in midfield whilst Helen Dermody just kept everything ticking over. And Katie Johnson, three goals from four games so far this season - not bad for a midfielder playing at right centre back!

 

[BillyDee]

Loughborough Lighting

Is that a works team..?

 

[Law's Bus]

Is that a works team..?

No, it's that I can't type "Lightning"!

 

[Law's Bus]

After last weekend's match was postponed, Wolves Women played away at Nottingham Forest, generally considered one of the stronger teams in the division.

We went into a commanding 3-0 lead, but two Forest goals in quick succession brought it back to 3-2 before an injury-time goal completed the 4-2 final score. Disappointingly we lost Destiney Toussaint to injury in the first half, so hopefully she will recover quickly.

Goalscorers were Maz Gauntlett (again), Katie Johnson (again!) and another two for Amber Hughes, bringing her total to 6 in 5 games. Other than the first game of the season (a 1-1 draw), we're averaging 4.5 goals a game so far this season.

Next game is on next Sunday away against Northampton Town in the National League Cup, before the next home game in Telford against Burnley on 2nd October.

 

[Law's Bus]

So, with all the justifiable depression that we all have around the men's first team and the fact that we're seeemingly happy to sleepwalk into disaster, let's talk about something much brighter.

Today's National League Cup tie away at Northampton ended in yet another 5-0 victory, with 2 goals from Ali Miller on her first appearance of the season, and one each for Anna Morphet, Summer Holmes and yes, you might guess, Amber Hughes bringing her seasonal total to 7. And we're still in September.

Next weekend's home game at Telford is a huge one against Burnley, currently level on points with us at the top, only separated with them having a worse goal difference (+16 to +5).

So, why don't you get out your ST, or get yourself a ticket, and get down to the Bucks Head next Sunday, and try watching a Wolves team that doesn't use the horseshoe of doom...

 

[Law's Bus]

Well, after bigging up the Women's First Team as being a far more interesting side to watch than the men's first team, the best part of yesterday's game was the excellent news that filtered through the ground at half time...

It was one of those games for the team, where no-one played well, passes constantly went astray and the positioning and pressing was off too. In short, it was the worst home performance from the team for literally years, and ended up in a 1-3 defeat to Burnley, who take over at the top of the table. Our goal was scored in injury time by substitute Ali Miller, who received the ball 25 yards from goal, held off the defence and lashed an unstoppable left-footed shot into the top corner. A moment of quality in an otherwise forgettable performance.

This is the first home defeat of the team since The Before Times, or February 2019 to be more precise which, abandoned seasons notwithstanding, is a stunning record.

The next game is at 2pm next Sunday at the New Bucks Head against Boldmere St Michaels.

 

[Law's Bus]

Ali Miller's goal from Sunday has landed on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1577267291586285569

 

[Law's Bus]

Yesterday's match against Boldmere St Michaels ended in a 1-0 victory, with a goal in the last few minutes from Amber Hughes bringing her seasonal total to 8.

It was looking to be one of those days - Boldmere clearly came with a gameplan to to put as many players behind the ball as possible, whilst trying to catch us on the counter. It nearly worked too - they got the ball in the net only to have it ruled out for offside. Wolves absolutely peppered the Boldmere goal with shot after shot, with the majority saved by the excellent Boldmere keeper who is quite possibly the tallest player I've ever seen in the women's game - she was a clear head taller than pretty much every other player on the pitch, which meant she had the reach of a men's game goalkeeper. But her footwork was also excellent and she kept being in exactly the right place. She even saved a second-half penalty, which to be fair, wasn't the cleanest hit I've ever seen.

Beth Merrick came on with about 15 minutes to go and made a real difference before we finally scored from a messy penalty area scramble.

Next game is the big one - the Black Country Derby against the Albion at 7.45 on Wednesday night at Telford. Surely you can't miss the BCD, can you?

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Interesting stuff.
Thanks for the updates Mr Bus!
Any chance Ms Hughes could get into the men's team?

 

[Law's Bus]

Classic goalmouth scramble, but you can also see just how tall the goalkeeper is when she's on her knees after conceding - she's still pretty much the same height as the defender standing next to her:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1579479366676975616

 

[Law's Bus]

The Black Country Derby is tonight at the New Bucks Head.

As a reminder, it's free to STH, and non-STH can pick up tickets via https://afctelfordunited.ticketco.events/uk/en/m/e/wolves_women_v_west_brom_women

 

[Law's Bus]

So, did anyone from here go last night?

It was a good game, with Wolves coming out 3-1 winners on the night with a brilliantly smashed penalty from Anna Morphet being followed by more scrambled goals from Jade Cross and yes, Amber Hughes - who promptly celebrated by running over to the Samosa Saturday gazebo and eating a samosa! I think that's a pretty unique celebration.

The first 10 minutes were brilliant - I think the Albion touched the ball about 5 times in the whole section, and we were just hugely on top. But credit to them, they pulled themselves back into contention, and scored first against the general run of play, before they let us back in with a pretty daft penalty given away just before half-time. From that point, there was only going to be one winner.

 

[sycophantia]

E

So, did anyone from here go last night?

It was a good game, with Wolves coming out 3-1 winners on the night with a brilliantly smashed penalty from Anna Morphet being followed by more scrambled goals from Jade Cross and yes, Amber Hughes - who promptly celebrated by running over to the Samosa Saturday gazebo and eating a samosa! I think that's a pretty unique celebration.

The first 10 minutes were brilliant - I think the Albion touched the ball about 5 times in the whole section, and we were just hugely on top. But credit to them, they pulled themselves back into contention, and scored first against the general run of play, before they let us back in with a pretty daft penalty given away just before half-time. From that point, there was only going to be one winner.

Enjoying your match reports mate, I will definitely get along to a game at some stage

 

[b3h]

Probably won't get to a game any time soon but I have mentioned to my partner that we could go and see if the womens football is more fun than the mens (she enjoys the drama more than the game itself... any kind of kick offs, weird moments, drones flying over the pitch etc ha)

Enjoy your updates though and hoping you keep it up like SW does with the loans (Y)

 

[Law's Bus]

As there was no game this weekend, have the goals from the BCD win:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1580650832944431105

https://twitter.com/x/status/1580928917296119809

https://twitter.com/x/status/1581200707755065347

 

[Law's Bus]

At the same time as the utter show at Molineux, Wolves Women played away at mid-table Derby, and came away with another 3-1 win, with two goals from substitute Ali Miller and the opener for Amber Hughes's 10th goal of the season. With Burnley being held to a draw, that means that Wolves are now top of the table by three points (and a better GD by +4) from Nottingham Forest, who have a game in hand.

Next match is next weekend in the League Cup against Brighouse Town on Sunday, but as it's too close to two Telford United games, it's being held at Compton Park instead. Tickets are available from the club, but there's a maximum of 150 on sale.

 

[Law's Bus]

Sunday's League Cup game against Brighouse featured a (not surprisingly) much-changed team, and finished with a 1-0 victory to put us into the next round. The biggest surprise was that our goal was NOT scored by Amber Hughes, but by Kelly Darby making a rare (for this season) appearance. Unfortunately, she also got carried off...

Next home game is this Sunday at Bucks Head against... Brighouse Town. Don't you just love playing the same team on successive weekends?

 

[Law's Bus]

I've had a really busy week this week, so have only just realised that I haven't mentioned the League game against Brighouse.

Clearly we're a better league team than a cup team as we won 2-0 with goals from Beth Merrick and, can anyone guess the other one? That's now 11 so far this season for Amber Hughes, putting us three points clear at the top of the table, though Forest in second place do have a game in hand; and have a GD only one worse than us now.



Let's hope for a win for Brighouse in their next game and they overtake the team ahead, eh?

The goals from the game:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1589973513712111617

https://twitter.com/x/status/1590328358612529153

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Mr Law, How many leagues (That are we top of), below Chelsea and City etc?