Sunday afternoon saw Goodison Park host the first FA Women’s Cup semi-final of 2015 in which Notts County took on Everton and subsequently made amends for last year’s elimination at the hands of the Toffees.
The Lady Pies were victorious thanks to a 3-0 win over the Merseyside outfit which saw them not only end Everton’s unbeaten run of seven games, but also extend their own unbeaten run to six. Notts County will now appear in the FA Women’s Cup final for the first time, with Wembley awaiting them in another first for the final, along with opponents Chelsea or Manchester City.
Everton were relegated from WSL 1 last year, and now sport a relatively young side as several key players left the club in the closed season. In comparison, Notts County – who are the top scorers in WSL 1 – have a host of England players in their ranks, and are able to boast a goalkeeper in Carly Telford who was recently chosen in the WSL team of the year.
For the majority of the game Telford had little to do, but was almost beaten after just 40 seconds as Everton started brightly with Lucy Whipp unleashing a shot from 25 yards out that hit the bar.
The Toffees number one Megan Walsh was then called into action twice, firstly saving from Jess Clarke who tried to tap in a corner from Dani Buet after it was headed on by Rachel Williams, and then from Williams herself who was presented with a good chance as result of a Notts counter-attack.
County continued to press with chances falling to Aileen Whelan and Clarke, before Everton began to get a hold on the game, with Whipp beating Sophie Walton before forcing a good save from Telford with a low shot.
The deadlock could have been broken on the stroke of half-time when Whelan headed the ball onto Ellen White, but the England international could only fire over from 20 yards.
The sides went in all-square at the break, but no sooner had the second-half kicked off, then Notts took the lead after ex-Evertonian Alex Greenwood whipped a cross into the box for Clarke to head past Walsh into the net.
Ten minutes later the Toffees were un-done by another header as the Midlands side doubled their lead through WSL 1 top-scorer White. Danielle Turner fouled Clarke and the resulting set-piece was accurately delivered by Greenwood onto the head of White who found the net from 6 yards out.
With ten minutes to go Buet made it 3-0 after her powerful free-kick from 35 yards out nestled into the corner of the net after missing everyone in its path.
And just two minutes later White could have claimed her second to make it 4-0 but her header was cleared off the line at the back post by Paige Williams.
Shortly afterwards the final whistle brought confirmation of County’s first ever FA Cup final appearance, along with wild celebrations from the travelling Pies fans. They will appear at Wembley on Saturday August 1st and face either Chelsea or Manchester City who play out their semi-final on Monday.
