Wolves Women manager Dan McNamara slammed his side’s display in their 1-0 victory over 10-player Sutton Coldfield in the first round of the Birmingham County Cup on Sunday.
The Old Gold recorded a staggering 44 shots on goal and struck the woodwork five times against the Royals, but could only manage a narrow victory against a side two divisions below them.
The sole goal of the game came in stoppage time in the first half, as Anna Morphet converted from the penalty spot after Mai Locke saw red for bringing down Jade Cross.
Despite dominating proceedings at the Central Ground, the visitors weren’t able to establish any breathing space over their opponents and McNamara was frustrated with the lack of clinical edge from his side.
“All of those chances and we go through on a penalty, so ultimately it wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We can pass it off as one of those games again or we can actually dig into it and have a look at it this week and find out why after 44 chances on goal, we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
“Overall, we’re disappointed, I think that disappointment rings around the whole staff and players.”
Sutton rode their luck at times, but their defensive grit and effort kept them in the tie until the very last minute.
“Credit to Sutton, they battled, they worked very hard when they went down to 10, were tenacious and stuck to their game plan,” McNamara continued.
“They very rarely got out of their half which is part of their game plan, they’re very good in those transitional moments. But as I said, we can’t create all those chances – a lot of them clear cut – and not put them in back of the net.”
Though it won’t be a match that will last long in the memories of many of the visiting fans, a place in the second round is the only thing that matters.
The BCC is a competition that Wolves have enjoyed success in in recent years. They won the trophy back to back in 2017 and 2018 and after being eliminated by Nottingham Forest in the Women’s National League Cup last month, McNamara and co will be eager to go deep into the competition once more.
The manager continued: “Through to the next round of course, but we’ve got to go away and probably be a little bit disappointed with the performance.
“The positive is that we are through but there’s a bit of ill feeling towards the fact that we couldn’t score from open play today.”
Wolves return to league action against West Bromwich Albion in the Black Country derby next time out and will need to improve their conversion rate if they are to pick up all three points and continue their strong record against their local rivals.
