Albion Ladies 6 Villa Ladies 1

Feb 18 2008 By Roger Clarke, Birmingham Mail

WEST Bromwich Albion pulled off the shock of the day with a 6-1 thumping of Villa in the semi-final of the Birmingham County Cup at Coles Lane.

The match between Northern Prem' Villa and non-leaguers West Brom' from the Midland Com' was supposed to be a warm-up for a Blues-Villa final, but no-one had thought to tell the Baggies the script.

Villa dominated the opening exchanges but could not find the net.

Furious manager Andy Mulligan said: "Albion had two attacks and scored with one of them so it was 1-0 at half-time.

"But in the second half some of our players never went out.

"We completely went to pot.

When it got to 2-0 some of our players lost belief.

"Some players just gave up and that is unacceptable. Albion took control and were full of confidence.

"At 4-0 we got one back, I have no idea who scored which shows how significant it was. We were just poor.

"If any team is up for it they can win if they believe, look at Barnsley at Liverpool in the FA Cup. Our players went out there believing they had already won it."

In the other semi-final Blues eased past a determined Wolves 3-0 with goals from Laura Bassett, ex-Wolves striker Becky Hall and Katy Ward.

Blues will be going for their eighth consecutive cup final victory next month in what is a repeat of the 2006 showdown, which they won at a canter, 6-1.