Ladies humbled in cup opener

SPORTING Club Albion Ladies lost their opening League Cup Group Three fixture 1-0 to Coventry City at The Grove on Sunday.

Cheryl Edwards’ 22nd-minute strike was enough to clinch victory for the visitors and the Baggies now require positive results against Villa, Derby and Leicester in order to advance to the knockout stages of the competition.

And Albion boss Dave Lawrence praised the performance of his side against National League opposition.    

“They played a bit of a weaker team when we played them last year but they had all their big guns out this time out which is a good sign for us,” said Lawrence.

“It was nice that they showed us that respect and as I said to the girls before the game, it’s obvious they weren’t taking us for granted and they took us seriously.

“Once the bigger sides go 1-0 ahead they become really difficult to break down and we struggled to create good chances once they went ahead.

“We were poor in the first half an hour and we didn’t retain possession well enough against quality opposition.

“We improved in the second half and we were much more competitive.

“We had some great chances and we worked their goal more than they worked ours.”