As Cori Williams fired in her third goal of the day and Cardiff City Ladies’ sixth last weekend, the conversational tide around Ocean Park Arena jumped a week in time.
The fast forward was inevitable. For all the platitudes regarding the magic of the cup, an inherent enamour remains for it, not least in the fourth tier of women’s football on a just-above freezing afternoon in Cardiff.
Cardiff City Ladies are into the fourth round proper of the FA Cup. An away fixture this Sunday to Burnley Women – sat third in the Northern Premier Division, a tier above Cardiff who ply their trade in fourth-tier Division One South West – awaits them.
And as the 6-2 league victory over Swindon Town played out its final moments, the weekend ahead felt closer than ever. Not only did the comprehensive come-back victory courtesy of a second-half blitz return Jamie Phillips' side to winning ways after ringing in the new year by incurring successive defeats in the FA NWL Cup and league respectively (their first defeats of the season), the victory also arrived just in time to gee up the crowd’s imaginations for what comes next.
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Cardiff City Ladies might have avoided a fourth-round draw with one of the more daunting Women's Super League behemoths, but the general consensus around Ocean Park Arena was straightforward: Cardiff City Ladies will be the underdogs when they arrive at the County Ground on Sunday. Plucky, sure. But underdogs nonetheless.
Still, a glance at their road to the Cup’s fourth round and their league results as a whole provides a stark contrast to this sentiment. In the Division South West, Cardiff City Ladies (not to be confused with Cardiff City Women, who are affiliated with the men's Championship club) sit five points clear at the top with 10 wins from 11 (their 4-0 loss to Moneyfields two weekends ago scuppered a then-immaculate league run). They boast a goal difference of 43. Runners-up Bournemouth offer the next best at 24.
Their FA Cup run follows an even more clinical narrative. Cardiff City Ladies have – and this is not hyperbole – flawlessly romped to this round. A 4-0 win over third-tier Bridgwater United in the cup’s first round set the tone, followed up by a 6-0 win over league rivals Keynsham Town and a 5-0 victory over fifth-tier Bournemouth Sports.
Naturally, then, as talk turned to Burnley, the temptation arose to be swept up by those prior scorelines. But club co-chairwomen Karen Jones and Michele Adams refused to allow such chat without some tempering.
The results are right on schedule for a club embarking on an identity reclamation project, buoyed by the mantra "new season, new identity" following a torrid 18 months which relegated the club to the fourth division, extending their banishment from the English Women’s Championship to nearly a decade. The fourth round of the FA Cup represents the latest milestone on their journey back.
Nevertheless, the unmistakable tugs of expectant smiles belied former Wales internationals Karen and Michele. It was the same story as Chloe Lloyd beamed post-match, the midfielder's goal before the half firing Cardiff City Ladies into a lead from which they never looked back.
“We played against Bridgewater in the cup and beat them,” Lloyd observed when queried about the challenge posed by playing a team in the division above. “We know we can compete in tier three. That’s not an issue for us.”
Williams concurred: “We know ourselves that we shouldn’t have got relegated. It happened, and we just want to push ourselves now and be the best we can. In pre-season, we competed against teams above us. We’re confident. I don’t think anyone should want to play us at the minute.”
Sunday, then, offers a litmus test for Cardiff City Ladies to gauge precisely where their competitive level is as they bid for promotion to the Southern Premier Division.
But there is also the spectre of what the fourth round has to offer the club financially. This season, the tournament’s total prize fund increased exponentially from £400,000 to almost £3million. The upturn means making the fourth round proper guarantees Cardiff City Ladies a cash windfall of £3,750, though most of this will be channelled into accommodation and travel expenses to and from Burnley.
Victory on Sunday would see the team bank £15,000, with the guarantee of another £5,000 in the next round. Beyond that, the boon only rises.
Very few, if any, on the touchline or the pitch will allow themselves to think further without pulling hard on the mental brakes. Ultimately the financial prospect, while titillating, is not fuelling the club’s ambitions, that much is made clear. Yet, the ripple-effect such a windfall could engender is unignorable, particularly for a club in the fourth tier eyeing promotion, still heavily fuelled by volunteer energy, FAW schemes and amateur players with full-time jobs, including 58-cap Wales goalkeeper Laura O'Sullivan.
“We know how much money it has brought to the club already, so to do it again would be absolutely amazing,” Williams admitted. “But for us it’s not about the money, we just want to keep competing as high as we can. If we get a match with Manchester United at home, we just have to deal with it. That’s the draw.”
It’s not hard to suss the feeling that the club would be delighted to deal with United, or any WSL club for that matter, though the club knows better than to indulge in conditionals. A late 2-1 loss to third-tier Plymouth Argyle – who sit in the relegation zone of the Southern Premier Division – in the FA NWL Cup to kickstart the new year, followed up by the 4-0 league beating by fourth-place Moneyfields, ensures any vestiges of an insouciant mentality have been firmly beaten out of them.
“We don’t like losing,” Lloyd confirmed. “It was a bit of a wakeup call for all of us and we focused on what areas we needed to be better at and that’s what training has to be like. It’s been tough, it’s been intense and over the Christmas period, maybe we got a little complacent. But we know now why we’re here, we’re ready to go again. It’s a massive second half of the season to come and this weekend is just another challenge we’re going to face.”
Even so, a silent pride permeated the Ocean Park Arena as players posed for photos with young fans to applause from the club’s evergreen faithful clad in their official red and white striped Cardiff City Ladies beanie hats and scarves.
And, of course, being the only Welsh club in the tournament also inspires its own dimension of pride. Cardiff City Ladies have long touted that identity close to their heart. The vigour around it has never waned, particularly not now.
“We’ve always played with a bit more pride being the only Welsh club in the system, so to go as far as we can and fly the flag for Wales, yeah it’d be brilliant,” said Williams.
Cardiff City Ladies’ FA Cup fourth-round clash with Burnley kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday, January 29.
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