Wolves Women Thread

[Law's Bus]

So, the FA Cup game against everyone's big spenders who think they should just be parachuted into the WSL because they're just too rich to bother with silly things that legacy fans like to call "getting promoted through winning divisions".

Yes, that trip to Newcastle United, which despite the snow around these parts went ahead quite happily; and ended in a 5-1 victory to put us through to the Fourth Round, which is where the WSL clubs come in, with the draw tomorrow. Whilst it will be interesting to get a WSL team, quite frankly I'd rather avoid them all and get someone either from the Championship (where we'd stand a chance of an upset) or from Tier 4 (where we should progress).

Shockingly, Amber Hughes failed to get on the scoresheet, with our goals coming from Beth Merrick (x2), Tammi George, Maz Gauntlett and an Anna Morphet penalty. Unfortunately Tammi had to go off with an injury, and there's no word about how long she'll be out for.

The game also featured a twice-taken penalty for Newcastle, which was twice saved by Bec Thomas. Not something you see every day!

 

[Kenny]

Home v West Ham in the next round

 

[Law's Bus]

Last night whilst most of us had our attention at Molineux, the women's first team played away at Boldmere St Michaels in the County Cup.

It ended in a hard-fought 3-1 victory after Beth Merrick had been sent off in the first half for handball in the area. Our goals came from Amy Dicken, Maz Gauntlett and an Anna Morphet penalty, but the worst news of the night was that Amber Hughes went off injured in the first half to join Tammi George on the injury list. Whilst we have reasonable strength in depth for a Tier 3 side, losing two of your best players at once to injury isn't exactly ideal. At least it puts us in the quarter finals of the County Cup, and with a chance of retaining the trophy.

The next currently scheduled game is fortunately not until 22 January, so hopefully some of those injuries will have cleared up by then.

 

[Law's Bus]

I've had another one of those weeks, so haven't had chance to update this before now.

Due to the FAWNL being.... not the most organised people on the planet, Wolves Women actually played a league game last Sunday with a grand total of 5 (yes, FIVE) day's notice. That's one thing when you have a team of professionals who do nothing else, but when you have a team who need to make sure they're not working, or might need to rearrange other life plans, it's completely ridiculous.

It's possibly as stupid as the play-off game.

So, shockingly enough, the game was a complete lottery with loads of missing players who weren't expecting a game, leading to a bench mostly filled out with young players, meaning it turned into the first defeat of the season, 0-2 against Fylde.

Due to the ridiculousness of the FAWNL, we're still top of the league by three points, but now Nottingham Forest have two games in hand.

Oh, and are we playing this weekend? Well, there's no scheduled game, but that clearly means nothing to these muppets.

In other bad news, Leonie Joyce, a really exciting young talented striker who was playing for the first team at 16 but has been on loan at Leafield to gain more experience this season, has decided to leave the club. She's exactly the kind of young player we need to hang onto, and why we need to get promotion and at least be able to offer professional contracts to female playes as soon as possible.

 

[Law's Bus]

Don't forget that today is the FA Cup game against a WSL team in West Ham.

So if you're thinking about maybe going, get your ticket booked online and get to the New Bucks Head and support the team!

 

[Law's Bus]

Ah, after a great performance, and huge amounts of effort and not a little quality, the fitness levels of the full-timers of West Ham really started telling in the last 10 minutes or so, and we ended up on the end of a 0-2 defeat.

The great thing is though that it was in front of nearly 1,700 people, so hopefully that will lead to yet more people turning up on Sundays.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Read the piece with Danny Mac on the official site. Basically we had West Ham rattled and they had to use some of the key players off the bench they were hoping to rest.

 

[Law's Bus]

Read the piece with Danny Mac on the official site. Basically we had West Ham rattled and they had to use some of the key players off the bench they were hoping to rest.

Yep, absolutely. The team should be hugely proud of themselves.

And hopefully, more long-term, it should demonstrate that after four years of barely losing games exactly where we need to improve - and it's going semi-professional at least for those players whose "day jobs" would support it. In reality, we have a load of players who are actually too good for Tier 3, but whose careers mean that they can't go even part-time - teachers for example.

 

[Law's Bus]

If anyone has no plans for the evening, then how about offering your support for the team in a Staffordshire Derby game at the New Bucks Head against Stoke at 7.45pm?

 

[Law's Bus]

Well, Wednesday's game was definitely a game of two halves.

Wolves came out absolutely on top of everything, and were utterly brilliant to the extent that the ball barely entered our half, and on most occasions it did it was because the team was passing it around, and Emma Cross as the deepest defender was just inside our half. We scored twice with two excellent efforts, one from Jade Cross and the other from Helen Dermody, and quite honestly, if we'd have gone in 5-0 up at half time there could have been no complaints.

Then, the second half. The heavens opened and everything changed. Suddenly after being completely outclassed if anything Stoke were the better team, coming back into it more and more - scoring after 75 minutes through ex-Wolf Sophie Bramford, at which point the game opened up further, including Wolves hitting the woodwork. Then in the sixth minute of injury time, Stoke equalised with the last kick of the game. Utterly gutting for the team who are struggling with a whole collection of injuries - no Amber Hughes, no Maz Gauntlett, no Summer Holmes and a clearly not entirely fit Tammi George.

And finally, is it just me who finds it really strange for a Staffordshire Derby to be played in Shropshire??

 

[Kenny]

So Stoke coped with a cold wet Wednesday night better then. Good to see that finally confirmed as being true

 

[Law's Bus]

After the mid-week second half disappointment, Sunday's game away at Loughborough Lightning went just a tad better, with a 6-0 victory, with goals from Helen Dermody, Katie Johnson, Destiney Toussaint, Jade Cross, Anna Morphet and Amy Dicken.

For some reason, the official Twitter feed have only so far released the first goal, but it's a pretty good hit to say the least!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1630221215729106952

 

[Kenny]

Seems Hobbs is looking to push the Women's team forward

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640688854159052805

Impressed with Hobbs in his opening months in his role. Certainly showing he isn't just a filler to cover Sellar's old role of agreeing with what Jorge and Jeff told him was happening, but looking like he has all but fully stepped in the gap that Darymple left

 

[Tony Towner]

The only real way he'll push them ahead is by paying them appropriately. They are unlikely to win Div 3 North this season, although there's still a chance, but whoever does win it is unlikely to beat the South team who comes through due to on field investment. Improving facilities, promoting them through social media, letting them play the odd game at Molineux is great, but doesn't address what will make the real difference.

 

[Kenny]

"If we don’t manage to go up this season, it’s about entering the new one giving them what they need to achieve the goal which is promotion.”

Possible change in strategy at the club incoming?

 

[Law's Bus]

I've been manically busy over the last few weeks so haven't had chance to keep this updated.
However, the last few weeks have been very impressive, with six wins in succession going into the last home League game of the season next Sunday at Bucks Head.

It's incredibly tight at the top of the division now, and any one of three teams could realistically win it - and there's every chance it could go to goal difference. Forest are three points plus GD ahead of Wolves, but we have a game in hand. And Burnley are just another point behind with that same game in hand. Unfortunately, the game in hand for both teams is against the other...



The remaining games for the top three are:

Forest
Brighouse (A)
Stoke (H)

Wolves
Derby (H)
Burnley (A)
Brighouse (A)

Burnley
WBA (A)
Wolves (H)
Liverpool Feds (H)

I think I'd rather have Forest's run-in. Burnley v Wolves is an utterly massive game though, and is absolutely a must win for both sides.

 

[Law's Bus]

Oh, and the County Cup final v Stourbridge has been confirmed as Tuesday 9 May at Molineux.

Hopefully that's a piece of silverware for us to retain, but it's great that it's a home game in the final rather than last year when it was at Bescot.

 

[darlowolf64]

Wolves have a rather tougher finish than the other two

 

[Tony Towner]

Failed to take advantage of Forest drawing by doing the same. Burnley now the team with it in their own hands after winning

 

[leedswolf]

Wolves women - subject of today's announcement?