Dan McNamara was ‘delighted’ with his team’s performance that saw his side topple local rivals Shrewsbury Town Women to progress into the fourth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.
14 goals alongside eight different scorers sent Wolves through to the next round with Charlotte Greengrass scoring five. It was a dominant performance that saw the boss praise his side; McNamara spoke on the upcoming fourth round as well looking ahead to next week’s Black Country derby in the quarter-final of the Birmingham Challenge Cup.
On the tie
“A local derby for the fans to get behind, I think there was a healthy crowd there today – over 500 I think someone said.
“So we’re very delighted to get the job done, we always have to come here and perform, and the FA Cup has a bad habit of punishing people if you don’t prepare well so we did everything that we normally do this week.
“I think you saw that on the pitch today, the way they adjusted to the new formation we asked them to play. I thought they were fantastic, and we’re excited to get through to the next round.
“It’s exciting times now, the big guns come into it tomorrow and we’ve done well to make some good memories of it over the years.”
On Greengrass’ goals
“There’s a running joke, if someone got to two today, I said I’d take them off because I didn’t want to give away those FA Cup balls.
“Obviously Charlotte got her hat-trick so wasn’t taking two home with six goals, but I’m delighted for her. She started the game slow by her standards and missed a few I know she was disappointed in.
“She’s found the back of the net and gone on from there with some nice finishes with her and some nice finishes from the other girls, Beth Merrick’s and Tammi George’s were standouts.
“I think the highlight of today was how we finished the game with another debut from a 16-year-old in Sophie Woodward, with Maddie Calder and Amelia Hiscox also on the pitch, Ania Denham at 17 on the pitch.
“Really positive everywhere and hopefully we can take it into next week to round off the year.”
On the FA Cup fourth round
“I don’t know who you’d want with the big guns in it, maybe another tie that’s winnable with a tier three, tier four team potentially.
“The girls have done fantastically well to get to this point. We say to get to the third round is the minimum every season, so to get into the fourth round and have the opportunity to face the big teams is a success for the club.
“We’re delighted and now we’ll focus on the task at hand next week.”
On next week’s Black Country derby
“Every game we want to win, every competition we want to do well in, again no doubt this week the fans will build the hysteria going into the week but it’s a Black Country derby.
“It’s old gold chasing round white and blue and that will get fans off their seat, whether that’s the women, the youth or the men so hopefully we go there and give a good account of ourselves.
“It will be nothing like the Hawthorns fixture, it will be tough, it will be hard as it’s a difficult pitch to play on so we’ll go there with a game plan and execute it and hopefully we can round off a brilliant year for the club.
“We’ve had some highs and lows but hopefully it’s another great year and it’s a stepping stone towards where this club should and will end up in the future.”
By Callum Greybanks