Brighouse Town Women thrash Stoke City in FA Women’s National League Cup

After Wednesday nights 1-0 win away at Burnley, Town took a break from league action at the Yorkshire Payments Stadium.

Having played Stoke a couple of weeks ago in a 1-1 draw, a game in which manager Rob Mitchell described as “two points dropped” given the chances missed, meant Town had the chance to right some wrongs and progress in the competition.

The game, sponsored by Tickles Music Hall, saw Town start brightly, opening the scoring in the 18th minute through Amy Woodruff, who managed to break free and latch onto an Ellie White through ball before firing past the keeper.

Eleven minutes later and Town had two, Leah Embley struck with venom in to the roof of the net after good work from Cara Fields.

The second half started in equally explosive fashion, after Stoke looked to find a way to beat Town’s impressive press but were unable to, instead it was Town themselves who added to the scoring, Woodruff grabbing her second of the game from a White corner.

Woodruff completed her hat-trick on the hour mark from the spot, Shauna Legge was taken down by the keeper with the goal gaping, Woodruff made no mistake in firing low in to the corner of the net to make it 4-0.

Manager Rob Mitchell then began to ring the changes and freshen things up. Stoke did reply on the 67th minute with a long range effort catching keeper Imogen Maguire off guard to make it 4-1 but any signs of a come back were extinguished just a minute later when Embley latched on to a Danielle Whitham through ball to smash in her second and Town’s fifth to make it 5-1.

As the game was drawing to a close, Stoke were awarded a soft penalty, Maguire managed to save the initial effort but was unable to keep out the rebound, meaning the score ended 5-2 with Town progressing to the next round of the cup.