Chelsea Ladies produced a dominant and emphatic display in the fourth round of the Woman’s FA Cup against London Bees. The WSL 2 couldn’t cope with the Chelsea onslaught as they cantered to 10 unanswered goals with Erin Cuthbert claiming her first hat-trick for the club.
After the tough week of fixtures for Chelsea this week, as expected there were a number of changes made to the starting line up. Only Mille Bright, Ji So-Yun and Fran Kirby kept their places from Thursday’s match against Manchester City. Carly Telford came in in goal, Captain Katie Chapman joined Ji in the centre of midfield while Kirby and Karen Carney played behind Cuthbert.
The first 20 minutes of the match actually went on without much incident with only a couple of half chances that were easily dealt with. Understandably, Chelsea’s normal crisp passing combinations were taking a while to come off due to the number of changes. In fact, Chelsea’s goal came uncharacteristically from a long punt upfield which Erin Cuthbert managed to bring down with ease before pulling off a sublime lob.
Once that goal went in, the floodgates opened for the Blues as Cuthbert’s opener was soon followed up by a tap in for Ji after some brilliant build up play from Kirby. After 30 minutes, the Bees were 3-0 down and the game was over as a contest; a cross from Karen Carney was headed into her own net by Bee’s defender Danielle Lea. That was the last meaningful action in the first half.
It would have been forgiven if the Blues players decided to take their foot off the gas in the second half after building up a commanding lead, however, Chelsea were relentless and went in search for more goals. Only two minutes of the second half had passed when Kirby took advantage of the Bee’s hesitant keeper, took the ball off of her and placed it into an empty net.
By the 75th minute of the game, Kirby had added her second goal to the scoresheet and Katie Chapman had also got in on the act. Centre back Millie Bright then got her first goal of the season after poking the ball at the second attempt from a corner. With 10 minutes left, there was still time for Cuthbert to complete her hat trick. Her second goal was poached in the six yard box after a lovely cross from Andersson from the left and the 19 year old then won and converted a penalty. The tenth and final goal for Chelsea came with the last kick of the game as Chapman grabbed her second.
Player of the Match: Erin Cuthbert (Chelsea) – Cuthbert led the line well and showed her attacking prowess with three well taken goals. The first goal being a glorious lob over the keeper which was the goal of the match
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