Cheltenham Town Women ready for Wolves challenge in historic first ever Women's FA Cup fourth round tie
Cheltenham Town Women play their first ever match in the fourth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup as they host Wolves Women at Kayte Lane on Sunday (2pm).
Tom Davies’ side have already faced Wolves this season, claiming in a 2-1 victory against the West Midlands side in the FA Women’s National League Plate.
Cheltenham’s game against AFC Wimbledon last weekend was postponed due to the weather, meaning the FA Cup will kick off their 2025.
They started their FA Cup campaign with a 7-0 victory over Yeovil Town, before Moneyfields 2-1 in the second round.
The team made history in the third round, beating Norwich City 2-1 after extra time at the start of December to book their place in the fourth round for the first time.
Meanwhile, Wolves started off their campaign with a 7-1 victory against Ashfordby Amateurs before beating Sporting Khalsa 8-1 in the second round.
In their third round match, they faced Shrewsbury Town, and put 14 past them without reply.
Wolves forward Beth Merrick has scored in every round of Wolves’ FA Cup campaign so far with four goals in the competition, whilst Charlotte Greengrass put five past Shrewsbury in the last round.
In their meeting earlier this season in the Plate, Maisy Collis and Emily Owen scored two quick-fire goals early in the game, before Anna Morphet halved the deficit just minutes later.
However, some fantastic defending kept the score at 2-1 for 70 minutes as Cheltenham held on for a fantastic result.
On facing what is starting to become familiar opposition now this season, manager Tom Davies said that he didn’t think they would face Wolves three times this season.
“We’ve played them in the pre-season, in the plate and now in the FA Cup,” Davies said. “The clubs haven’t played for years now we have played them three times.”
Davies admitted that despite having beaten them once this season, Sunday’s game isn’t going to be easy.
“We’re not favourites by any stretch. Wolves have a phenomenal group of players, we know what their qualities are, our job is to be better than last time.”
Ahead of the season, Davies’ side were seen as ‘relegation favourites’, however, Cheltenham have lifted themselves six points clear of Gwalia in 11th.
“To be able to start proving people wrong and putting ourselves in the mindset of ‘we’ve already made history’ and we’ve got the opportunity to create more in a few weeks in the plate is a great feeling. We’re really proud.”
Kick-off at Kayte Lane is 2pm on Sunday, with tickets available to buy on the Cheltenham Town Women website.
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