Gwalia United moved into the Second Round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup on Sunday after a hard fought victory over Winchester City Flyers. However, the winning margin of four goals was very harsh on their hosts who play two steps below Gwalia in the Southern Region League, but matched them for most of the game.
After a bright start, Gwalia took the lead on 13 minutes when Tia Asker curled a left-footed shot into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area. Just five minutes later Winchester had a great opportunity to equalise when they were awarded a penalty after Shayne Prasad was brought down, but Chelsie Hay’s spot-kick was not good enough to beat Benedicte Haaland in the Gwalia goal.
Haaland was called into action several more times to preserve Gwalia’s slender lead, and it was not until the 74th minute when Ellie-May Sanford headed a second goal to give them a bit of breathing space.
As full-time approached Winchester committed players forward in an attempt to rescue the game, but Gwalia kept them at bay and finally sealed their victory with two more goals in injury time from Manon Pearce and Eliza Collie. The Cardiff based side will now travel to Plymouth Argyle in the Second Round.
We were fortunate to have photographer Ian Middlebrook on hand to capture the action.
