Dan McNamara was full of praise for his young players who helped play a part in Wolves Women’s resounding Adobe Women’s FA Cup victory away to Asfordby Amateurs.
A Tammi George hat-trick, Racheal Quigley brace and goal each from Beth Merrick and Abi Loydon saw Wolves comfortably progress into the second round of the cup. McNamara highlighted his side’s youth players and was happy to see players coming into the side perform well, before focusing on the upcoming trip to Liverpool Feds next Sunday.
On the tough test from Asfordby
“I thought the girls did well in moments. I don’t want to stand here and say we weren’t great because I actually thought Asfordby represented themselves and the league they play in fantastically well.
“The way they defended the box was unbelievable at times. I thought the goalkeeper was outstanding, and it’s what you expect from these cup games, these are the ones you want to be a part of, coming here and the expectation is on you to perform, and I think they did that.
“We’re not too pleased with 55 chances at goal and to only come away with seven goals isn’t ideal. It’s not so much of us not performing, I think Asfordby made it really difficult. They also had their moment with the goal which was great to see if I’m allowed to say that, but we talked about getting a decent performance in and minutes into different legs and coming out of here in the next round with no injuries which we did today.”
On players coming into the side
“It’s great to see, you saw Quigley’s quality, I think she could have had four in the first 15 minutes.
“I normally have a direction where I want to go with my youth players, but Amelia Hiscox has gone against the mould this year, she’s still in and amongst it and making appearances for us which is a credit to her. I think she is one of the few that come out of the U16s and can challenge at the level we’re playing at.
“In the second half we introduced Maddie Calder for her debut at 16, so to finish the game with two 16-year-olds on the pitch who are as bright as they are, is really pleasing to see.
“Everyone knows I oversee the academy programme with the player development lead and it’s brilliant to see the girls coming through now, and congratulations to everyone this week seeing an U16s England captain in Sareet Binning, it adds to that youth coming through. Overall, I’m delighted with them two and there were plenty of other good performances.”
On youth players making an impact
“It makes it interesting to have these youth players coming through, no one will ever travel because of their age or it’s nice to do, they’ll travel because they deserve it; Maddie Calder deserved to be here today, and Amelia deserved her start.”
“Layla and Abi deserve to be in. Then you look at the so-called senior players, Morphet is 23, Katie Johnson is 21, and Tammi George showed a different side today with her leadership qualities. Normally she leads through her combativeness, but today she really came out of her shell and drove the first half and rightly got player of the game and gets a hat-trick for Wolves.
“I’m delighted for her and hopefully that can be one of many more good performances to come from her in a Wolves shirt.”
On upcoming opponents Liverpool Feds
“Liverpool Feds is a very tough place to go. We’ve seen over the years they don’t lose many games up there. It’s quite intimidating with a nice tight pitch and they play it really well, so we’ll have to make sure we’re switched on and I have said that to the girls.
“We enjoy today and tomorrow but then we’re back to it on Tuesday. We have a lot of preparation to get through for Liverpool Feds and we want to make sure we’re in and amongst the top come Christmas and that starts at Liverpool Feds on Sunday.”
Written by Callum Greybanks
