West Riding FA Women’s County Cup Quarter-Final
Leeds United Women 5 (Rae-Ellis OG 5’, Brown 37’ 46’ 80’, Ellis 92’)
Yorkshire Amateur Women 1 (Fozzard 6’)
Leeds United Women: Simpson (GK), Robson, Hamill, Elliott (Hindle 46’), Smart (C), Underdown (Ellis 81’), Williams, Whitham (Price 65’), Rousseau, Brown (Woodruff 81’) Soares-Martins.
Yorkshire Amateur Women: Stewart (GK), Cromack, Hopton (Flaherty 51’), Rae-Ellis, Ohr, Asher, Garbutt (Wardle 89’), Peasegoode-Capilla, Murphy, Fozzard (C), McKenna. Subs not used: Darey, Thiyagarajan, Muscroft.
Venue: So-Trak Stadium
Referee: J Isherwood
Booked: Rae-Ellis (Yorkshire Amateur Women)
Attendance: 101
Leeds United Women booked their place in another cup semi-final, with a convincing victory over Yorkshire Amateur Women.
Rick Passmoor made six changes from the side that beat Merseyrail last weekend, with a busy week ahead in mind. The Whites have an important trip to Stockport County in the league on Wednesday night and host Southampton in the FAWNL Plate Semi-Final.
Savannah Robson came in at right back, Izzy Elliott made her first appearance of the season after injury, coming in to partner Cath Hamill at centre-back, with skipper Olivia Smart continuing at left-back.
Kanisha Underdown and Paige Williams both came in to start in midfield alongside Danielle Whitham.
Jess Rousseau made her first start for the club after impressing on her debut off the bench last weekend, whilst Sandra Soares-Martins also came in to complete the front line with last week’s hat-trick hero Abbie Brown.
Both sides came into the game in flying form. The Whites’ FA Cup loss to Arsenal their only defeat in their last seven and Yorkshire Amateurs had lost just two of their last 10 in all competitions.
It was Leeds that took the lead early on, Rousseau raced clear but saw her shot saved by Eboney Stewart, only for the ball to ricochet into the goal off the unfortunate Georgia Rae-Ellis.
Any hopes of a routine afternoon following their bright start was immediately squashed, however. The visitors went straight down the other end and equalised, Tanya Fozzard getting in down the left and squeezing in from a tight angle to make it 1-1.
Leeds struggled to break Ammas down but finally retook the lead when Williams broke from midfield, her shot was fumbled by Stewart and Brown was on hand to fire home from close range.
Brown could have made it two for herself just before half time, the referee awarded Leeds a penalty when Hamill was tripped, Brown stepped up but saw her effort strike the post.
HALF TIME: Leeds United Women 2-1 Yorkshire Amateur Women
Leeds came out flying at the start of the 2nd half and killed the game within 20 seconds. Soares-Martins sliding Brown in on goal, she saw her first effort saved but was quick to pounce on the rebound to notch her second of the afternoon.
Brown completed her second hat-trick in as many games on 80 minutes, finishing from a tight angle after Rousseau’s shot crashed off the post.
Leeds completed the scoring late on as substitute Macy Ellis got in behind and found the bottom corner.
Despite a game of little quality, the Whites did enough to get the job done against their spirited lower-league opposition and advance into another cup semi-final.
FULL TIME: Leeds United Women 5-1 Yorkshire Amateur Women
