By Andrew Crawshaw
With the men no longer in the FA Cup this year it is up to our Women to take over the mantle on Sunday afternoon when they have a last 16 tie against Millwall Lionesses. The Women’s version of the Cup is known (this season) as the SSE Cup Final after the sponsors.
The full draw for the fifth round is
- Arsenal v Millwall
- Cardiff v Charlton
- Lewes v Everton
- Sunderland v Aston Villa
- Chichester v Liverpool
- Birmingham v Manchester City
- Chelsea v Doncaster
- Durham v Leicester
Some names there that you wouldn’t expect to see – Lewes, Chichester and Durham being the obvious examples. Here is a quick rundown of the 7 non-Arsenal games :-
Cardiff is the Welsh capital City but as with the Men’s game their women’s team play in the English League. They play in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division which is effectively the third tier of the Women’s game. Charlton are based in South London and are also in the Premier League South. This match could be a close one.
Lewes is a small village in East Sussex, like Cardiff and Charlton they are in the Premier League Southern Division and play their home games at the delightfully named Dripping Pan – I kid you not. Everton are a WSL1 team (two levels Higher) and fully professional, whereas Lewes are all very much part-time players. I would expect this game to be a comfortable win for Everton.
Sunderland are a WSL1 team, Aston Villa are currently in WSL2. There is a very big difference in quality between the top of WSL1 and the top of WSL2 but not so much between the bottom of the higher division and the top of the lower. Sunderland are currently fifth in WSL1 with 4 wins from 9 games And Aston Villa 9th out of 10 ten WSL2. Should be a win for Sunderland
Chichester is a small city in West Sussex in the South of England. They play in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division. If they can get any kind of a result against Liverpool it will be a very major upset indeed. Liverpool are currently one place behind us the the WSL1 so probably the fourth highest ranked club in the country.
Birmingham v Manchester City is an all WSL1 affair. Manchester City have yet to lose a game this season and have only drawn once against second placed Chelsea. They are far and away the class team in the country this year and it would be a major surprise if Birmingham who are a well drilled and hardworking team can change that fact. The gulf in player quality is too great..
Chelsea are the second ranked club in the country this season, like City they are unbeaten but have drawn two matches, the one against City and a second surprisingly away at Reading. Doncaster are the top team in WSL2 and will probably do enough to keep Chelsea ‘honest’ but I cannot see this ending up as anything other than a Chelsea win – again the gulf in quality between the two teams will be too great.
Durham are fourth in the WSL2, Leicester play in the Premier League Northern Division (like the Southern Division the third tier of the Women’s game). I would expect this one to go in Durham’s favour.
Turning now to our match against Millwall.
Millwall are one of the best teams in WSL2 currently sitting in second place behind Doncaster. I would expect them to prove a sterner test than Yeovil did last week. Yeovil are the bottom team in WSL1 and are yet to score a goal in their league campaign this year let alone score a point. Nevertheless they gained promotion from WSL2 at the end of last season ahead of Millwall.
I remember going to Millwall a couple of years ago for a cup tie and watching us run out 7 – 0 winners in an extremely one sided match. Both teams are much changed since then and I will be very surprised if that scoreline will be repeated.
Our team at last seems to be playing more coherently under new Manager Joe Montemurro, than we were under Pedro Losa. We are still not already at our fluent best but there are definite signs that we are now progressing rather than regressing.
Joe joined us at the beginning of November and his first game in charge was our Continental Cup quarter-final in December against Sunderland which we won 3 – 1 (his first scheduled match against Liverpool in the WSL1 had been postponed due to heavy snowfall). Subsequent games against Chelsea (WSL1), Reading (WSL1 and Continental Cup semi-final),Yeovil (SSE Cup and WSL1) and Liverpool (WSL1) have earned us four wins, one draw and a narrow loss against Chelsea and seen us score 15 and concede five.
Our three games in February have seen 3 – 0 wins against both Yeovil (SSE Cup) and Liverpool (WSL1) and last weekend a 4 – 0 win against Yeovil in WSL1. To me it seems inconceivable that we will lose against Millwall today.
It is likely that Anna Moorhouse will start in goal instead of Sari Van Veenendaal. Emma Mitchell will probably continue at Left Back (but it might be Katie McCabe), Louise Quinn and Leah Williamson as the two Centre Backs and Club Captain Alex Scott at right back. In midfield I would expect to see Jordan Nobbs (our stand out player so far this season), Dominique Janssen and Danielle Van de Donk. Up front Danielle Carter and Beth Mead should both start following their two goals each last weekend and either Heather O’Reilly or Vivienne Miedema completing the forward line up.
I am looking for more goals than the four we scored last week and a clean sheet as well. We played Millwall in November in the Continental Tyres Cup and emerged as 5 – 2 winners with three goals in the last 15 minutes. On our own ground we should do better.
The game is at Meadow Park Borehamwood with a 14:00 kickoff. The atmosphere will be friendly, children are encouraged and tickets available on the gate at £10 or £5 for concessions so it won’t cost you a fortune. I would urge you to come along if you can as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. The Hot Dogs are really excellent as well and the tea/coffee much better and cheaper than the Emirates.
COYG
- Could the shirt sleeves save Arsenal? The impact of Toddler Brain Habits on sponsorship
- What Bellerin said, Toddler Brain Habits and making money from criticising Arsenal
From the Arsenal History Society: Exposing the second libel against Henry Norris: the summer of 1920.
Confirmed lineups here ar Borehamwood
Arsenal
Moorhouse (GK), Mitchell, Nobbs (c), Carte, McCabe, Quinn, O’Reilly, Evans, Janssen, Van de Donk and Mead
Subs
Van Veenendaal, Scott, Little, James and Kuyken
Millwall
Quantrell (GK) Alexander, Nicol, Brooks, Robe (c), Horwood, Dean, Gaylor, Wynne, Mason and Cowan
Subs
Hinks, Devin, Taylor (GK) Rutherford and Wotton
Weather is dry, not much wind but overcast with high clouds.
According to the twit feed, the game has just entered the second half. A goal was scored about 5 minutes before the half ended. I’ll leave it a mystery for Andrew to fill in. 🙂
Gord yes the game finished one nil. An excellent finish from Beth Mead, got the ball on the edge of the 18 yard box towards the goal line from a throw in, shielded it well as she moved backwards towards the goals then swivelled into space and fired home into the bottom right hand corner.
In truth it was one of the few quality moments in the game. We dominated possession much of it in the Millwall half but always seemed to over complicate things in and around the 18 yard box
We never looked likely to let Millwall have a goal and it was a frustrating but easy one nil win.
The Tottenspud are down 0-1 at half time to Rochdale. Kane on the bench. Bobby Madley has the whistle, and Sian Massey-Ellis is running one line.
I wonder, if the Tottenspud are still losing with time nearly ending, will Madley give Kane a penalty to try and convert?
Congratulations to the Women’s team, by the way.
The other games ended up :-
Cardiff 1 Charlton 3
Lewes 5 Everton 2 so a real Cup upset here
Sunderland 3 Aston Villa 2
Chichester 0 Liverpool 3
Birmingham 1 Manchester City 2
Chelsea 6 Doncaster 0
Durham 5 Leicester 2
So of the seven games where I suggested who would be winners I got six correct. The surprise being the magnificent 5-2 win by Lewes over WSL1 Team Everton.
Gord, if that happens it won’t be on Sian Massey’s side of the pitch!
Gord, how very nearly correct regarding the Totts.
Should have put some money on that one Gord! Bloody Spuds!
Tottenspud tie the game at 59 minutes, and what do we see at 88 minutes? Kane scores from the penalty spot to put the Tottenspud ahead 1-2.
I’ve no idea if that is Sian Massey’s half or not. I am just reading a commentary.
2-2 take that you cheating chickens.
Gord, no other end.
Ha! Nice work Rochdale!
Thanks Knobby.
Im curious to know if in the women’s game are the refs just as bad as the men’s?
I would like to request a song. Could you play Splish, Splash by Bobby Darin? I’ld like to send that out to Dele Alli.
Ben,
There are some who are very good, others less so and some wouldn’t be out of place in the PGMO.
I was at the Arsenal v Yeovil game last week and the female referee Sarah Garratt was excellent. She has FIFA accreditation and was in charge of the Arsenal v Chelsea cup final two years ago where she was also very good.
Today we had Alex Rayment who was good, made no significant errors but not quite in Sarah’s class.
I rarely see the same king of systemic bias that I do on a weekly basis with our Men’s team, sometimes incompetence but it seems to generally be a neutral incompetence with poor calls against both teams. Mind you the Women don’t go in for the same kind of play acting as the men.
Unless I’m going mad hasn’t an entire article disappeared ?
Lewes. As far as I am aware Lewes is the county town of East Sussex and Chichester the county town of West Sussex.
It seems something of a coincidence that the two Mersey Side teams should be drawn against the two Sussex teams.
I cannot understand why women can’t ref a Premier League football match? Do they know and apply the rules? Are they fit? Can they be bought? (oops)
Nitram, 67380 disappeared. Not long before it disappeared, I had posted a link to a Marca article on how the medja were helping PGMO screw up VAR. Probably just a coincidence.
Colario,
I wouldn’t be looking at it being more than a coincidence and I’m as paranoid as they come.
I misread the BBC website when I posted the scores earlier. Lewis didn’t win by 5-2, in fact they actually lost by 6-0. That’s what comes of looking things up on a phone while typing on a tablet on a train! Or maybe just senility setting in.
Small devices. Moving trains. Multi tasking. Old age. Drink. Anger.
All a recipe for a posting catastrophe.
Andrew Crawshaw
18/02/2018 at 8:09 pm
That’s what comes of looking things up on a phone while typing on a tablet on a train! Or maybe just senility setting in.
I share this with you 🙂