Wolves Women eager to seize the chance in Cup

After almost four months without a game and the disappointment of having a second successive league season cut short, Wolves are taking on Nottingham Forest in the second round of the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday.

The game, which kicks off at 2pm at Castlecroft, will be broadcast live on YouTube, Wolves TV and the Wolves App.

And McNamara is happy to have the chance to be back out on the pitch – and potentially attract new supporters through the stream – after a tough period for his side.

“It’s really exciting. It’s a real statement from the club to be airing it for us,” said McNamara.

“That shows the direction that we’re going in.

“All I want the girls to do is go and do themselves justice now.

“But I’ll be reaffirming to them that none of them have anything to prove to anybody.

“What will be will be over the summer, and if we do get that reward of promotion, it’s been thoroughly deserved.

“Nobody has anything to prove to anybody. They’ve just to go out as they have done over the last two years.

“If we get a positive result, that’s absolutely fantastic.

“But if we don’t, I’ll just be happy to be back on the grass with the staff and the players, and we’ll move on from there.”

Wolves’ last match was in the previous round of the Cup, when they beat Stourbridge Ladies 3-0 on December 13.

Anna Morphet, Jade Cross and Kelly Darby got the goals that day.

In terms of what league they will be playing in next season, McNamara’s charges remain in the dark.

They plan to apply for promotion from the Women’s National League Division One Midlands – which they were top of when each of the last two campaigns were cut short – but are yet to be informed of how the process will work.

“It’s exactly the same at the moment,” said McNamara.

“We’re still waiting for an update on what the application process is going to look like. So, it’s all quiet at the minute.”

For now, the focus is on enjoying the Forest game and putting in a good performance.

Preparation has not been ideal, with the lifting of lockdown restrictions meaning they have only been able to train this week ahead of the match.

But McNamara is just glad to finally have a game again.

“Ideally, we would have been given longer than six days to prepare for this game,” he added. “It’ll be an equal playing field, so it’s not a complaint, and everybody has been working hard away from Wolves.

“To come back in and just train Tuesday and Thursday isn’t ideal.

“But it puts us in a different position than other teams across tier three and four in that we have a competitive game to look forward to.”