Ladies’ cup dream ended by Rovers
TOWN Ladies were beaten 3-1 by Blackburn Rovers in the quarter-final of the WNL Cup.
In their first home game for almost a month, the Terriers started well at the Stafflex Arena, but with 30 minutes gone were put on the back foot.
A free-kick was cheaply given away on the left touchline and the result was fatal.
Jess Holbrook whipped a brilliant ball into the six-yard box and, although Charlotte Oates got a hand to the initial deflection, a second ricochet saw the ball cannon into the back of the net.
After the heavy defeat at West Ham United last time out, the Terriers’ heads could easily have dropped, but they are made of strong stuff and came back fighting in brilliant spirit.
A long ball forward caused problems in the Rovers defence and, as they allowed the ball to bounce, Lucy Sowerby took full advantage.
The striker showed her strength and skill to not hold off the advancing defender’s attempts to regain the ball, but to roll past the challenge.
In the blink of an eye, Town’s number 19 span away from her marker and unleashed a rocket into the top right corner to pull her side back level five minutes from the break. But Blackburn are top of the league for a reason and soon showed why.
Following a corner, Saffron Jones jinked her way into a shooting position and forced Oates into a good save, but Lagan Makin had the simple task of passing the ball into the empty net.
With 20 minutes left Blackburn sealed the victory. Makin played the ball across the box to find Jones, who turned from provider to scorer.