Womens FA Cup sixth round
Doncaster just got a little bit closer! Lincoln Ladies today
became the first club to book their place in the FA Cup semi finals. It’s the furthest
the club have reached in the famous old competition since the 2008 season, when
they again reached the last four. If Lincoln continue to play like this then
there is every chance that they could go one better, and reach the club’s first
ever FA Cup final.
Today Lincoln faced opposition from a lower division in the
form of Leeds United Ladies. However Leeds are having a great season in the National
Premier division. They are sitting in third position in the table, into two cup
semi finals and are scoring goals for fun. Although they are in a lower division,
they did have the advantage of having been playing competitive football
together since August whereas Lincoln only had 90 minutes of competitive
football under their belts, that being the victory over Chelsea in the last
round. Just to really add some spice to the game, Lincoln manager Rick Passmoor
left Leeds to join up with Lincoln in the summer. Furthermore Lincoln have the
former Leeds players Carla Cantrell, Remi Allen, and Sophie Bradley among their
ranks. So all in all it had all the hallmarks of a classic cup tie as the
pundits would say.
Some meetings go down in history as the place where it all
started. Rugby League was formed at the George Hotel in Huddersfield, Robin
Hood and his merry men are said to have hatched their plans around the Major Oak,
deep in the heart of Sherwood Forest, and so on. Today at Sincil Bank, before the
match, the first ever meeting of the Lincoln Ladies supporters club took place.
Names were put to faces and representatives elected in what was a very successful
first meeting. More details will be announced in due course. I was very
impressed with the work that has already been put in; things are really taking
off. From small acorns great oak trees grow and all that.
Today we were treated to an early kick off as it gave the ground
staff an extra few hours to get the pitch ready for Lincoln City’s clash with
Cambridge United on Monday. Despite this, there was a decent turnout with quite
a few fans making the journey from West Yorkshire to support Leeds. Although it
was a bit chilly at least the sun was out which is a huge improvement given how
bad the weather has been for the past few days/weeks/months/since I can
remember.
Given that Lincoln have a small squad and wasn’t a huge surprise
that the lined up was exactly the same one that despatched Chelsea in the last
round. The danger girl for Leeds was their number 9 Carey Huegett who has
bagged an impressive 19 goals this season in all competitions.
Lady Imps line up was (4-4-2) Karen Bardsley in goal. A back
for four of Bonnie Horwood at right back. Casey Stoney and Sophie Bradley in
the centre, and Martha Harris at left back. A midfield consisting of Jess
Clarke on the right, the central pairing of Megan Harris and Remi Allen, with
Emily Roberts on the left. Up front the Imps had Precious Hamilton, and former
Leeds striker Carla Cantrell.
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| Oi! never mind tweeting the game has started! ;-p |
Leeds United took the kick off but Lincoln were all over
them right from the start closing them down and forcing them into mistakes. The
home side penned in their visitors, and in the early moments both Precious
Hamilton and Jess Clarke got in great crosses that Leeds failed to deal with,
but unfortunately for Lincoln nobody was there to follow up. Shortly after Lincoln
had their first real chance at goal when Carla Cantrell received the ball with
her back to goal, turned on the spot and blasted just wide of the post. Jules Draycott
in the Leeds goal was diving that way so I will give her the benefit of the
doubt and say she may have had it covered, had it been on target. There was no
let up for the visitors as a few minutes later Bonnie Horwood played in a great
through ball to Jess Clarke, who beat the full back only for her shot to hit
the side netting. One of the keys to winning football matches is to score when
you are on the front foot and in the 15th minute Lincoln got the
goal their play had deserved.
Leeds had been causing much of their own downfall by giving
the ball away in their own third of the pitch, but their luck ran out with
Lincoln’s first goal. A long ball was sent forward which Precious Hamilton gave
chase to. The defender tried to shield it back to the keeper as it bounced, but
Precious got round her and with the keeper stranded she calmly headed it over
her and into the back of an unguarded net to give Lincoln the lead. Lincoln
continued to win a series of corners but were unable to add to the score as
Leeds dug in and weathered the storm. The game had started to become scrappy so
to try and mix it up, the Imps wingers Clarke and Roberts switched flanks to
give the Leeds full backs something else to think about. On 28 minutes Leeds
mounted their first real attack which gave Karen Bardsley her first action of
the game when she took the resulting goal kick.
It was Roberts who set up the next really good chance for
Lincoln; she forced yet another corner, which Carla Cantrell swung in, but
Leeds only partly cleared it as far as Casey Stoney, whose looping header hit
the bar, and the ball was scrambled to safety. The Imps almost doubled the lead
on 38 minutes when Carla Cantrell played a great ball to Precious who, after a
wonderful piece of skill which flicked the ball around the defender, she hit a
tame shot straight at the Leeds keeper. Then on 42mins it was 2-0, as Precious
grabbed her second of the game when she broke clear of the defence and
unleashed a fantastic effort into the top corner to give the score a more
realistic outlook.
HT 2-0
Leeds came out for the second half in much more determined
mood and could have made it 2-1 in the first few moments when they won a free
kick down the Lincoln left which was swung in, and went all the way through to
the back post where it was (thankfully from a Lincoln point of view) headed
over. This did seem to be the wake-up call Lincoln needed, and they were soon
on the front foot again and on 66 minutes they thought they had added a third
goal when Jess Clarke set up Carla Cantrell, but she was adjudged to have been
in an offside position. Jess was at it again moments later, when she dispossesed
Leeds full back Emma Lipman (who was one of Leeds’ better players on the day)
and ran to the by-line, but not for the first time in the afternoon her cross evaded
everybody.
Then on 73 minutes Leeds created their best attack of the
game. A fantastic through ball split the Lincoln defence and let Leeds’ Danielle
Sheen clean through on goal. Thankfully Martha Harris got back and produced a
fantastic last ditch tackle to send the ball out for a corner; a corner that
Leeds promptly hit straight into the side netting.
It took Lincoln until the 79th minute to make the
game safe when Jess Clarke was bundled over in the box. Remi Allen stepped up,
sent the keeper the wrong way and put Lincoln in the semi finals of the FA Cup.
I didn’t get chance to take a picture of the penalty but I did draw a quick
sketch of it in my note pad for you all.
Lincoln completed the score-line just four minutes later
when Carla grabbed the goal that her efforts deserved with a thumping volley into
the roof of the net from 12 yards out. Moments later, Precious could have had
her hat-trick but her effort was hacked off the line.
FT 4-0
All in all this was a solid performance from the Imps. Right
from the off they imposed themselves on the game and closed Leeds down, making
it very hard for them to play. In my humble view I think Leeds froze a little
on the day and didn’t really do themselves justice. They did work incredibly
hard, but they just had no real answer to Lincoln’s pace on both flanks. Their
keeper Jules Draycott had a great game and was easily the player of the match
for the Whites. For Lincoln it was more difficult to pick a player of the game,
but I will go for Precious Hamilton as it was her great finishing that got
Lincoln going and her all round play was fantastic. Pushing her for the award would
have been Jess Clarke or Carla Cantrell; who seems to have really improved this
season. Again like in the last round, nobody had a bad game and long may that
continue.
Coming up.
The Lady Imps have a week off next weekend as its
international week with England locking horns with Canada. The following
weekend (Sunday the 14th) The FA WSL finally gets underway with
Liverpool making the trip over to Sincil Bank for the first match of the season
(2.00pm ko). The week after sees us travel to Birmingham City Ladies for a
Continental Cup tie (again a 2.00pm kick off). The supporters club will be
running transport to the match so to book your seat just email Tom at t.johnstone@ntlworld.com.
Stop Press.
As I have been writing this drivel, the semi finals for the
FA Cup have been made and the draw is as follows.
Bristol Academy or Everton Ladies v LINCOLN LADIES
Liverpool Ladies v Arsenal Ladies or Birmingham City Ladies
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