One of the ‘perks’ of getting promotion to the Barclays Championship for NUFC Women was that they get to participate in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup – or The Conti Cup as it’s commonly known.
United get to face Super League sides in the group stages of the competition giving them another exciting opportunity to test themselves against some of the best sides in the country and measure their progress.
The group stages for United commenced on Wednesday with a home tie against WSL Everton at Kingston Park and run through to December, with 22 of the 24 clubs from the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship entering in the first round.
Holders Chelsea and Arsenal receive a bye to the quarter-finals as a result of their participation in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
The competition is divided into two sections – Northern and Southern – with two groups in the North and three in the South. The winner of each group will join Chelsea and Arsenal in the last eight, along with the best runner-up from across the five groups.
As well as Everton in Wor Lasses’ group they will also face two other WSL sides with Liverpool due at Kingston Park on Sunday 24thNovember before a trip to Manchester United on Wednesday 11th December.
A formidable group indeed but one that this fearless group of ‘Geordies’ will not be afraid to attack and give it their very best shot as they showed on Wednesday with a very creditable 1 – 1 draw with Everton.
It meant a point from their first game but, under the strange competition rules, they couldn’t take a bonus point as they lost a penalty shoot-out 3 – 0 after the 90 minutes to give Everton two points to take back to Merseyside.
Becky Langley took the opportunity to give some of her squad that haven’t played many minutes so far this season by making eight changes from the side that defeated Portsmouth last time out on Sunday 2 – 0 in the Championship.
Only skipper…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/10/05/newcastle-united-women-beaten-in-big-test-for-becky-langleys-lasses/
Author : Olly Hawkins
Publish date : 2024-10-05 07:32:52
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