Ladies slip to narrow cup final defeat against Walsall Women

Knowle Ladies slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Walsall Women in the Birmingham County FA Challenge Cup final at the Pallet-Track Bescot Stadium on Tuesday night.

A solitary first-half strike from Lyndsey Ross was enough to settle the contest on a night where Knowle's best period of play came in the first 25 minutes after half-time.

While much of the attention has been focused on the men's record-breaking campaign - and the club's centenary year - Knowle Ladies are closing in on a special one themselves. Celebrating their Silver Jubilee season, Ryan Mountford's side sit three points clear at the top of West Midlands Division One South and need just one point from their remaining three matches to mathematically secure the title.

Walsall - who entertained 601 Saddlers fans at the Bescot only two weeks prior - are rooted to second place in Division One North, but were quietly confident ahead of the encounter, according to Head Coach Matt Willis' pre-match press conference.

In the opening exchanges, it was clear to see that Walsall carried a greater physical presence and they carved out their first opportunity 14 minutes into the final.

Robins stopper Sophie Henness, often dominant in one-v-ones, did well to deny threatening forward Sophie Rowlands before the goalkeeper made light work of the right-wing cross that followed.

Henness produced a magnificent double save to deny Amy Rollason and Olivia Corns eight minutes later. She parried Rollason's powerful effort before getting in the way of Corns' follow-up.

Walsall looked far the better team first half and duly found the opener through Ross midway through the period. Left-winger Ross nicked the ball and neatly curled into the top-right corner from 15 yards.

North versus South was always going to be an intriguing cup final, and Knowle thought they had found a leveller 10 minutes before half-time. Top scorer Trina Greaves played Darcey Garner down the right flank before the latter pulled back for Holly Briggs to shoot. Saddlers stopper Olivia Wells made the save before Grace Evans found the bottom-left corner, but it was to no avail because the assistant referee's flag was raised for offside.

Knowle had a point to prove after Walsall ended the first half with a deserved one-goal lead, and they did indeed improve.  They created their first meaningful opportunity of the second half seven minutes after the restart when Greaves slipped a ball through for Garner, but her effort was well blocked.

The Robins were experiencing a bit of joy down their right side at this point and Garner - in her second senior season at just 17 years of age - soon skinned Freya Nixon before whistling a shot narrowly over the crossbar.

Garner was again involved with 23 minutes to play, whipping a wicked cross towards the back post that Greaves could only stab over the upright from close range.

Robins boss Mountford introduced physical striker Nicole Jakeways in an attempt to beef up his attack for the last seven minutes, and Briggs made way for Sam Smith in stoppage-time, but Walsall kept the intensity high to secure the trophy at the stadium they love playing at so dearly.

Walsall were the ones to celebrate at full-time, but Knowle should hold their heads high because they are still in pole position to secure promotion back to the Premier Division at the first attempt.