Express & Star

Shrewsbury Town's magnificent seven in defence of county cup

Shrewsbury Town began the defence of their Tom Farmer Shropshire Women’s Challenge Cup title in dominant fashion at home to Albrighton.

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The hosts strolled to a 7-0 victory at the Community Pitch outside the Meadow to ensure comfortable progression into the next round of the competition.

Speaking after her side’s convincing victory, defender Toni Kingscott admitted they are desperate to win the competition for a second consecutive season.

“Of course it gets harder as you go through each round, but I think it was definitely a good start to score seven goals,” she said. “Hopefully we can take that into the tougher games that will come up.”

Kingscott added: “I think it was a good chance for players to get minutes and for us to put what we’ve worked on in training into practice, and now we’ve implemented it we can take it into the league.

“We definitely controlled the game, I think possession-wise we did pretty well and built up through the thirds, and we were clinical with the chances we created.

“The clean sheet was massive, yes we had to score goals but that was expected, the clean sheet was what we wanted today because we haven’t had many.”

Zoe Child put Shrewsbury ahead after six minutes before goals from Zoe Griffiths and Paris Schofield made it 3-0 at half time.

Griffiths and Schofield both netted again after the break, as did Sophie Eastwood and Henrietta Arnold as the hosts completed a hugely successful afternoon’s work.

Shifnal Town also enjoyed a good weekend of cup football, dispatching Broseley 4-0 away from home.

Maria Bell, Rebecca-Lee Brown, Holly Bullock and Verity Farrall all found the back of the net for the visitors to bring some much-needed positivity to the team after a tough start to the league season.

AFC Telford United thrashed their reserves team 8-0 in round two with Megan Jones (three), Jamie Duggan (two), Jemma Smith and Sasha Woodhouse among the scorers.

Elsewhere in the competition, goals from Maia Preston, Chelsea Simpson, Lauren Hamer and Kaitlin Brookes gave Allscott Heath a 4-0 win at home to Newport Town, while Mia Washington’s hat-trick helped Whitchurch Alport on their way to a 7-0 win at Shrewsbury Juniors. Danni Price’s brace, and one each for Rose-Anna Cooper and Grace Stockton completed the scoring for the visitors.

Goals from Danielle Rhodes (two) and Wendy Marsh gave Dawley Town Lionesses a 3-0 win at Meresiders, and Shrewsbury Up & Comers won 4-2 on penalties against Worthen Juniors.

The draw for the third round of the competition has been made, with Shifnal Town at home to Allscott Heath, Shrewsbury Up & Comers travelling to AFC Telford United, Whitchurch Alport hosting Dawley Town Lionesses and Shrewsbury Town facing the winner of Market Drayton Tigers vs Ludlow Town at home.