By Myles Hocknell, photo by Josh Tyler-Williams
Nantwich Town FC Women booked their place in the next round of the WFA Cup with an impressive 3-1 victory away to Rochdale AFC at the Crown Oil Arena.
The Dabbers started positively and began creating the better of the chances as they dominated possession. Nantwich goalkeeper, Connie Watts, was called to spring into action after 25 minutes. She produced an important intervention to deny the Rochdale striker in a one-on-one situation, coming off her line to put the forward under pressure and prevent the opening goal.
Nantwich then created their best opportunity of the first half. Mollie Newton delivered a dangerous cross from the left, finding Amanda Fallon in a great position, but her effort went over the bar.
Neither side could find the breakthrough before the interval, with the scores level at 0-0 at half-time.
The Dabbers came flying out of the blocks after the restart, with Fallon breaking the deadlock within the opening minutes of the second half to give Nantwich a 1-0 lead, after turning in a cross from Meg Andrews.
Rochdale continued to push for an equaliser and eventually found one with 20 minutes remaining, setting up a tense final stage of the cup tie.
Nantwich responded brilliantly, restoring their lead through Layla Woollam. Katie Greenwood delivered an excellent cross into the box, which Woollam converted to make it 2-1.
The Dabbers then put the game beyond Rochdale with a third goal. Tegan Ansell won the ball back high up the pitch before firing an excellent finish across the goalkeeper and into the top-right corner to make it 3-1.
Nantwich managed the remainder of the game professionally to secure a deserved victory and, most importantly, their place in the next round of the WFA Cup.
The GOAT Player of the Match was awarded to Mollie Newton in her third appearance for the Dabbers. She produced a consistently strong performance throughout the 90 minutes and earned herself a £50 voucher from our friends at GOAT Nantwich.
Manager, Dan Mellor, had this to say on the FA Cup win:
“We were excellent today and, for large parts of the game, completely dominant. The only disappointment at half time was that we hadn’t turned the chances we created into goals because we could quite easily have been two or three up.
We started the second half really well and got the goal we deserved, but then conceded from a set piece which could have knocked us back. I was really pleased with the response though. We didn’t panic, we didn’t change what we were doing and we kept playing our football.
The two goals we scored to finish the game were excellent and a real reflection of the quality we showed going forwards and on another day the scoreline could easily have been much higher.
The FA Cup is about moments and taking your chances and today we created plenty and eventually took enough of them to get ourselves into the next round. We’re delighted to be through and looking forward to the next round.”
Starting 11: Connie Watts, Corie Mather, Mollie Newton, Sam Cawley, Katie Naylor, Katie Greenwood (C), Layla Woollam, Meg Andrews, Amanda Fallon, Tegan Ansell, Charlotte Crees.
Substitutes: Abi Poulton, Alicia Hatton, Amber Mayer, Sasha Johnson, Poppy Emery, Bridie Harding.
Nantwich Town FC Women’s next match is a league game against Preston North End, away from home.