Ladies 5-0 Fleetwood Town Wrens

Goals from Sophie Tinson (2), Hollie Smith, Beth Davies and Rosie Gill mean that the Harrogate Town Ladies FA Cup adventure will continue into the Second Qualifying Round, having put in an outstanding team performance against Fleetwood Town Wrens.

A game for the history books awaited Harrogate Town Ladies as they played in the First Qualifying Round of the Womens FA Cup for the first time in their history.

A 10-0 win over a Wetherby Athletic in the first round and a 2-1 defeat last time out to Farsley Celtic in the league meant Town had both positives and negatives to take into the fixture as they welcomed Fleetwood Town Wrens to The CNG Stadium.

Town had to wait only until the fifth minute to have their first effort on goal, as Grace Adams released Smith down the left-hand side who fired at the visiting keeper who saved well.

In the 19th minute Town would break the deadlock, a lovely weighted ball by the skipper Lindsey Whitton evaded the whole of the Fleetwood team and landed at the feet of Tinson who had to have two efforts on goal to open the scoring, tapping in her rebound after her initial strike.

One quality goal was quickly followed by another as Davies, who also scored against Wetherby in the last round, hit a superb strike from the edge of the box which smashed against the crossbar and in.

It was quite a turn out in terms of fans with over 150 through the gates for an historic FA Cup game, but they would have to wait until the second half to see the third goal of the tie, the crucial goal that killed the game with Gill pouncing on a through ball and slotting her shot under the keeper - the Tinson / Gill partnership is now starting to flourish.

Despite continued pressure in the second half from Fleetwood, Town added their fourth of the afternoon courtesy of Smith.

A Town freekick into the box led to a pinball like scramble in the Fleetwood goal area and Smith would be the most alert, saw a gap and drove the ball with confidence into the back of the net.

The goal scoring wasn’t over for Town just yet, after a lull in action substitute Megan Perez lofted a perfectly weighted ball towards Tinson who seized onto it, ran past the Fleetwood defence and slotted home.

This result sends Harrogate Town Ladies into even deeper unknown territory in terms of the Womens FA Cup, with stats including two wins, two clean sheets and 15 goals there’s no saying where the FA Cup dream could finish for Town this season - for sure, no club will be looking forward to a visit to the CNG Stadium. 

Harrogate Town: Jackson-Powell, Wilson, McDonald (Marsden 63), Whitton, Becky Davies, Gill, Beth Davies (Perez 77), Clayton, Tinson, Adams (Hale 63), Smith

Subs not used: Naylor

By Isaac Martin