It could have been a potential banana skin but, in the end, this may have been the game that saved Lincoln City’s season.
The women’s team beat lower-tiered Grimsby Borough 3-1 on Sunday in the FA County Cup semi-final and will now head to the final, where they face local rivals Lincoln United.
City manager Charlotte Dinsdale says she is delighted with her side’s progression into the final despite the “poor performance”.
She said: ‘‘I’m really pleased we’ve got to the final, we had a really young team out there with a couple of injuries.
“I’ll be honest, the performance I was disappointed with, particularly having played so well at Solihull away on Sunday and Lincoln United on Wednesday. It felt like we were a different team.”
Despite a difficult season in the league, in which the Imps have registered just one point and sitting bottom of the table, City’s successful cup campaign – including beating local rivals Grimsby Town Academy – has boosted the side’s confidence.
Captain Shelby Morris believes her side’s recent strong performances are down to the younger players training together. She said: “It helps with the girls being able to train together, they are getting to know each other.
“We’ve got young ones coming in and we did miss Ken (Becky Kendell) today but they’ve shown that they can work together and have done well at the back.’’
The Imps cruised to the win despite going 1-0 down early on in the first-half due to a long-ranged free-kick by the Borough captain.
It looked a cup upset might occur but City quickly turned the game around and took the lead going into half-time thanks to goals from forward Sienna Joal and captain Morris, who lobbed the opposition keeper far out from goal.
Crowfoot dealt the final blow midway through the second-half, capitalising on a stray ball inside the six-yard box to make it 3-1 to City, progressing her side to the final.
‘‘The morale is high. I think we are disappointed with how we played but we dug deep and got the goal, so morale is high for the final and the girls will be up for it,’’ said Morris shortly after the match.
City’s win comes after a busy schedule in the league. The week before the semi-final the side registered their first point of the season after drawing 1-1 versus Solihull, followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat to Lincoln United who they will now face in the cup final.
Dinsdale said: ‘”Solihull away gave us a good platform to build on really. We’ve had quite a few players come in the last few weeks so it was good to get a decent enough result.
‘‘It’s really good to see we’ve grown massively as a team and I think we were able to use confidence from Sunday going into Wednesday’s game and maybe also off the back of that given we were playing a tier-six team.’’
Lincoln City’s finals opposition, Lincoln United, beat Gainsborough Trinity 2-0 in their semi-final game. The Whites beat Lincoln City four days prior thanks to a converted penalty by ex-City player Lucy Farrow.
The date of the final is yet to be announced, with confirmation to come in the next few weeks.
