Jaz Elliott-Wood has spoken of her delight after South Shields Women reached the first round proper of the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday.
She got the equaliser as Shields launched a superb comeback against FC United of Manchester Women to win 3-1 at 1st Cloud Arena.
“I felt like throughout the whole game, we controlled it massively,” she shared afterwards.
“They had the odd chance here and there but other than that, we were on top. We created so many chances and on another day we would have taken them.”
When the Mariners went behind just before the break, it would have been easy to lose confidence, but they have proven time and time again they just don’t give up.
She continued: “We of course went 1-0 down and to say we were gutted would be an understatement.
“At half-time we spoke about the fact that we could win the game but we just needed to be more clinical, which was fair enough.
“We were absolutely relentless in the second half - attack after attack - we knew it was just a moment of time before we got the goal.
“Once we equalised we just knew it was going to be us in the hat for the next round!”
There isn’t very much else like it in football - a dazzling cup tie in front of a roaring crowd.
Putting in a good showing certainly helps, as Elliott-Wood made clear when asked about how things went from her perspective.
She said: “FA Cup games are always special but I think that one especially will be a long lasting memory, more so because of the performance.
“The girls were absolutely outstanding - some of the football we played was just lovely to watch.
“Everyone gave it everything; we were getting kicked, pulled, pushed but we just kept fighting.”
The result extends Shields’ unbeaten start to the season to seven games in all competitions, but she insists preserving that isn’t necessarily the main focus for the team.
“I think to be unbeaten in seven games is impressive, considering the opposition we’ve come up against,” she added.
“However, as much as we want to carry that streak on, it’s important we don’t look too much into that.
“The lasses have done a great job so far but there’s a long way to go!”
Shields are without a game this week, but they will be back at home in league action against Chester-le-Street Town Ladies on Sunday, October 27th.
She finished: “Some could say this break has come at a bad time, as we’re playing some of our best football at the minute, but we’ve also had some really tough games recently and we will appreciate the weekend off.
“We’ll still be in training during the week getting prepared for the next game.”
Image credit: Craig McNair (@ideventphoto)
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