Wednesfield Ladies v Wolves

Midland Women’s County Cup

Wednesfield Ladies 1

Wolves 7 (Selmes 15, 19, 58; Quick 47, 56, 88; B. Hall 63)

Wolves survived an early scare to kick off 2012 with a win and make comfortable progress into the fourth round of the County Cup.

And there were hat tricks for both Dani Selmes and Amber Quick as Wolves hit a magnificent seven.

The opening ten minutes saw both sides struggle in difficult conditions and it was underdogs Wednesfield who took a shock lead as a 25 yard effort flew past Wolves goal keeper Natalie Hall.

This seemed to spark Wolves into life and a minute later Becky Hall hit the cross bar from a free-kick.

A further 60 seconds later Wolves equalised as Selmes scrambled past both her marker and the goalkeeper to poke home as the higher-ranked side regained control.

Four minutes later Selmes put Wolves into the lead after converting a cross from Jordan Timmins-Ray.

The remainder of the half saw both sides struggle to play on a slippery, bumpy pitch and Wolves were unable to add to their advantage.

The second half was a different matter however as Wolves finally found their stride and dominated from the off with Quick capitalising on some great hold-up play from Selmes to score and extend the lead.

Club captain Anna Perks took to the pitch soon after as she made her first appearance of the season after returning following a long illness.

Wolves scored twice more prior to the hour mark as Quick doubled her tally with a beautiful right-footed effort before Selmes completed her hat trick after pouncing on a rebound.

Becky Hall made it 6-1 with a solo effort, lofting the ball over the on-rushing keeper after bursting through the middle.

With 20 minutes to go it was time for the return of another player who had been out injured as Sarah Lambeth took to the field to replace Philippa Wilson.

As the game went in to its final stages Quick completed her own treble with another fine goal as she burst through the Wednesfield defence before firing over the goalkeeper as Wolves finished the game in style.

After the game, Wolves Manger James Astle said he was pleased to see the team back in action.

He said: “It took us some time to settle down today and the wake-up call allowing Wednesfield to score first.

“From that moment on we were rarely troubled.

“It was plain to see there’d been a break and we hadn’t played, so it was good to get back playing and we finally got back into our rhythm.

“It was nice to get two players back in Anna and Sarah after long-term injuries and getting some game time at last.

“I’m happy and just want to get back to the league campaign now”.

Team: N. Hall, Large, Salter, Williams (Perks), Anslow, Wilson (Lambeth), Quick, B. Hall, Timmins-Ray, Palmer, Selmes. Unused subs: Murphy, Whiteman, Rimmer.