Kingfisher FC 1-5 Walsall Women
Walsall Women emerged victorious from their latest pre-season outing against Kingfisher last Sunday in extremely hot conditions.
Due to holidays, manager Joe McGrath took the opportunity to include several players from the Development Team for experience.
The opening stages of the game were even, with play going from end to end. After 20 minutes Walsall began to control the game and made several promising incursions into the opposition half, but were unable to capitalise until Hanaiya Azhar went on a meandering run into the area and was fouled before a shot could be taken.
Shortly afterwards a pull back to Aaliyah Shearer on the edge of the area was struck first time and rebounded fiercely off the crossbar.
At this point you could be forgiven for thinking it would not be the Saddlers’ day. However, five minutes later after some fine link up play between Azhar and Jasmin Springer on the left wing, Springer ran through on goal and calmly placed a shot into the far corner to make the breakthrough.
Buoyed by taking the lead, Walsall made it 2-0 with a terrific switch of play from Springer that found Shearer in space just inside the area and she squared the ball for Elle Tandy to finish from six yards out.
Just before half time, Tandy returned the favour by squaring for Shearer to coolly finish from six-yards to give the Saddlers a commanding half time lead.
Walsall made personnel changes during the break and also switched up the formation. The changes did not affect the team as the Saddlers continued to play smart football and Azhar ran through on goal for a smart finish to make it 4-0.
McGrath made a few more changes to give players a break from the heat and whilst they were settling in, Kingfisher got a grip on the game and when the ball fell to their midfielder 25-yards out, she unleashed a dipping shot to pull one back to 4-1.
This seemed to reignite Walsall and they soon forced a corner which was crossed in perfectly by Springer to Tandy who was waiting at the back post to meet the ball with a powerful, unstoppable header to complete the scoring.