REDDITCH United Ladies will be seeking to continue another highly impressive season when they host Atherstone Rangers in the Birmingham FA Women’s County Cup quarter-finals on Sunday (2pm).
This is already the furthest the Reds have progressed in this competition and they now face the north Warwickshire side who play in the equivalent West Midlands Regional Women’s League Division One North.
Like United, Atherstone progressed via a penalty shoot-out in the previous round and, despite their lowly league position, with come to the Trico Stadium determined to spring an upset and continue their progress in a competition which still features FA Women’s Premier League outfits Wolves, West Brom and Coventry United.
Gary Barrell’s Reds side head into the match buoyed by a 5-0 Division One South home victory over Solihull Sporting Ladies on Sunday which extended their unbeaten league run this season to 12 games.
With six matches remaining, United are now red-hot favourites to win the title having extended their advantage over second placed Gornal, who have a game in hand, to seven points.
Alice Rogers’ first senior goal – a cool tenth-minute finish – opened the scoring against Solihull before Ellie Gerhold doubled the hosts’ advantage five minutes before the break when she converted at the far post from Maisie Farr’s free kick.
Solihull battled hard and against a lesser side would surely have found their way back into the game in the second half, but their efforts went unrewarded and Redditch made it 3-0 on 82 minutes through Samantha Hanna’s scrambled finish.
Late on Gerhold’s shot on the turn forced a smart save from the Solihull, only for Tia Williams to convert the rebound, before Rebekka Langhammer’s thumping strike put the icing on the cake three minutes from time.
