Women's F.A.Cup = Second Round Draw

 In the Women's F.A.Cup we can find teams from Level 3 to Level 7 of the Women's Pyramid with the Championship and the Super League yet to join the draw.

The women's game is still developing and wherever that happens there will be high scoring matches as some teams are way ahead of others in terms of development and talent. I have been fascinated by the girls who when they first came on television were "nice to look at" but now they dive into tackles as often as the men. They still spend too much time adjusting their hair bands but that is a feature of the women's game.

We shall begin with the two weakest teams left in the draw:

Netherton United Ladies & Girls (When will they change the team name to WOMEN?) compete in the Cambridgeshire Womens & Girls County League (The league needs to set the example!) qualified for this round by beating Anstey Nomads Women. They now have to travel to Long Eaton United who play at Level 4 in the National League Division One Midlands.

Clapton Community Women who play in the Greater London Football League reached this stage by beating Biggleswade United Women and now have the difficult task of travelling to Hounslow who play in the National League South at Level 3. They have the toughest task of all teams.

The best scores in the first round were double figure scores:

Huddersfield Town beat Sir Tom Finney FC Women 20-0. They now travel to Sheffield FC.

Queens Park Rangers beat Bromley Ladies 11-0. They now entertain Billericay Town.

Hashtag United beat Southend United Community Sports Club Ladies 17-0. Their reward for this feat is a home tie against AFC Wimbledon.

Portsmouth beat Dorking Wanderers 13-0. Their next match is at home to AFC Bournemouth.

I did have to clear up two issue while I was feeding the draw into my spreadsheet. Firstly, and this is MY fault, I got confused between Lincoln United and Lincoln City.

Lincoln City travel to Leafield Athletic. Both teams play at Level 4.

Lincoln United travel to West Bromwich Albion who are two levels above. Level 5 v. Level 3.

The bigger confusion was when I had to determine which matches the teams in Southampton were involved in. I had to log into the website to determine the following.

Southampton FC Women travel to Ilminster Town Ladies.

Southampton Women's FC take on Cheltenham Town who are in the same league.

I think an official of the F.A. should take early measures to make the distinction clearer.