Wolves Women manager Dan McNamara hailed Jade Cross’ display in the Old Gold’s 8-0 hammering of Stourbridge in the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday.
A commanding first half performance saw the hosts take an emphatic 5-0 lead into the second half at New Bucks Head to all but ensure a place in the next round of the famous competition.
Though there were several impressive displays, Cross stole the show with a brilliant trio of goals, and her manager couldn’t hide his delight at the strikers clinical afternoon.
“Jade was fantastic,” he said. “You know what you’re going to get from her, she loves the football club, she’s our top scorer. Emma (Cross) as well, I know they would’ve really enjoyed that today and loved being back on the pitch.”
The sisters (Jade and Emma) have struggled for pitch time of late, but both took their chance when trusted from the off against the Glassgirls.
While J. Cross took home the match ball, E. Cross led the backline to a comfortable clean sheet against their local league rivals.
“Credit to them, they’ve come back in and it’s like they haven’t been away, their game time in recent weeks would’ve been less than both of them would’ve wanted, but listen, they’re a massive part of what we’re trying to do here at Wolves.”
Aside from the duo, several players also made notable contributions; Amber Hughes netted a brace, while Beth Roberts, Sophie Bramford and Emma Morphet completed the scoring in Telford.
Wolves have struggled at times this season in terms of consistent performances, and they came into the match off the back of a 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, and McNamara was delighted with the response.
He added: “I thought we were excellent today, we talked about getting a reaction from last week before the game, and some of the football we played was outstanding, some of the best I’ve seen all season to be honest.
“They couldn’t live with us at times and we scored some really good goals as well. Some big performances, I’ve mentioned Jade and Emma, but Amber (Hughes) as well, really pleased, a great all round performance to start our FA Cup run this year.”
A treble winning season is still on the cards for Wolves, they are among the favourites to earn promotion to the Women’s Championship and are in the next round of the Women’s FA Cup.
They are also in pole position to retain the Midlands County Cup, they host Boldmere SMW in the quarter-final of the competition this weekend, and the boss insisted that his side will not underestimate their lower league opponents.
“We’ve got to go out and give a similar performance next week, it’ll be tough against Boldmere,” he said. “They’ve got some fantastic players who will want a battle, we will have a strong look at them this week as we do every team, we don’t disrespect anyone.
“We need to assess how we can hurt them next weekend and are looking forward to being back at Compton, hopefully we can progress into the semi-final of the County Cup.”
