A hat-trick for Amber Hughes, including an outrageous 30-yard strike, helped Wolves into the Birmingham FA County Cup final, where a Black Country derby awaits.
Tammi George and Amy Dicken were also on target, as Wolves hit Boldmere St Michaels Women, all after the interval.
During the first-half the old gold were on top in terms of possession but struggled to create any clear-cut chances on a wet and windy afternoon at Boldmere St Michaels FC.
Anna Morphet was sent away down the left-hand side and the Boldmere goalkeeper rushed out to meet her. Morphet’s touch forced her wide, but she did well to cross, only for her effort to fly up rather than over and land in the stopper’s hands, much to the relief of the home side.
Elsewhere, Beth Merrick was influential in a quiet first-half for both sides. Shortly before half-time, her whipped in corner evaded everyone and fizzed just wide of Boldmere’s goal – had it got a touch off Maz Gauntlett at the near post, Wolves would have been 1-0 in front going into the break.
Half-time | Wolves 0 Boldmere 0
As the second-half started, Wolves came out a different team, as a sensational Hughes goal got the scoring off to a flyer. She took the ball forward, saw Quinn off her line in goal before unleashing a rasping 30-yard effort which looped over the Boldmere goalkeeper, who truth be told had no chance, with what was a special effort from Wolves’ number nine.
Wolves nearly scored a bizarre second goal as a sliced cross from Laura Cooper on the right nearly went in off the post as it seemed to take the Bodlmere goalkeeper completely by surprise, but it didn’t quite cross the line for the visitors.
However, one soon did two minutes after, through a Tammi George cultured finish into the bottom corner. Maz Gauntlett slipped a brilliant ball through to George who was sent in down the left, finishing superbly into the near post and doubling Wolves’ advantage much to the delight of the travelling faithful.
Gauntlett had a chance to make it 3-0 when a corner was played to her on the edge of the box, but her right-footed effort went over the bar for Wolves.
It did soon become three for the visitors when Amber Hughes had an easy job from a tight angle to tap into an empty net from the rebound, to wrap up a great second half for the in-form striker.
Amy Dicken made it four late on when a great right footed strike from the substitute flew past Quinn in goal to wrap up what was a great day’s work for the girls.
When everyone thought it was over, Hughes grabbed her hat-trick on the stroke of full-time, slotting the ball past the keeper from close range and wrapping up a five star second-half performance and the team celebrated booking a place in the final of the Birmingham FA County Cup.
Fulltime | Boldmere 5 Wolves 5
REACTION
On the win
Wolves boss Dan McNamara was delighted with his team’s performance, despite the tricky weather conditions. He said: “It was definitely a game of two halves. We spoke at half time about how important it was to come into the break 0-0.
“The conditions were horrendous at times, but we knew eventually that a little bit of quality would go our way and five moments of quality in the second half have got us into the cup final which we’re delighted to be in.
“Boldmere just wanted to stay in the game in the first-half and just play on the counter-attack, putting bodies behind the ball. They did it very well and I thought they were very well organised and hard to break down, but eventually with the calibre of players we’ve got on the pitch, we will always find a way and Amber found her own way with a 35-yard thunder bolt and that opened the game up and then four more goals followed.
“The goals had real quality about them. Boldmere continued to make it difficult, but we were delighted with the victory and delighted to be in the final.”
On reaching a cup final
“This group have had memory and memory taken away from them with Covid. It’s going to be a tough one with it being a Black Country derby and we know what it will mean to them. We’ve just got to focus on what we can do and hopefully we will come out successors in the end.”
On Amber Hughes’ form
“Amber will tell you she probably wasn’t happy with her goal return in the first part of the season and it’s something she really wanted to focus on for the second half and that was her own personal target.
“You can see how much quality she’s got. She’s a fantastic person to work with and we’re just delighted to have her in and around the squad week in week out.”
On the next challenge
A trip to Nottingham Forest is on the cards for Wolves on Sunday as they look to continue their unbeaten run in the league.
McNamara said: “Every game is tough in the league. Forest are outstanding and we’ve seen what happens when you switch off against them, when they knocked us out of the FA Cup. They’ve got quality all over the pitch and probably under achieving with the personnel they’ve got in place so they will be looking to put that right.
“The girls have got something to show and to prove it was a freak result last time out. Hopefully we can go there and give a good account of ourselves. The business end of the season has started now, and everyone is just excited to see how high we can finish up that table.”
NEXT FIVE
27/02 Nottingham Forest (A)
02/03 Stoke City (H)
06/03 Burnley (A)
13/03 Loughborough (A)
20/03 Middlesborough (A)
TEAMS
Boldmere | Quinn, Sutton, Liddiard, Sherrell, Keeling, Scott, Dickinson, Weston, Bickley, Billingsley, Lundie.
Wolves | Turner, Cooper, Price, E. Cross, Gauntlett, George, Hughes, Morphet, Dermody, Elsmore, Merrick.
