Manchester United Women continued their league cup campaign in style as they beat Newcastle United 5-3 in their final group game.
United had already won their two previous fixtures in the competition against Liverpool and Everton.
The Red Devils were also coming off the back of an impressive 4-0 win at the weekend against Liverpool and were full of confidence entering the match.
Marc Skinner rung the changes and goalkeeper, Saf Middleton-Patel, made her debut for the club.
United debut ready 🫡
Let’s go @SMiddletonPatel 🧤❤️#MUWomen pic.twitter.com/JvXNLfC2H7
— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) December 11, 2024
The home side started the brightest and had the ball in the back of the net after only nine minutes of play. A corner was whipped in by fullback Anna Sandberg and under seemingly little pressure, Newcastle’s Hannah Sophie Greenwood headed into her own net.
United soon thought they had scored a second when Emma Watson almost finished off a fine move, but her effort was cleared off the line.
It was the perfect start but Leigh Sports Village was stunned when Deanna Cooper charged through the United midfield and smashed the ball into the net just four minutes later to draw the Magpies level.
The home side threatened with a couple of efforts from Geyse before a wonderful run by Maya Le Tissier ended with a fine pass into Watson, who provided a smart finish to score her first goal for the club.
United continued to pepper the Magpies’ goal and a wonderful rabona effort from United’s Brazilian Geyse almost added to their total.
Despite the one-way traffic, United went into the half time break with just the one goal advantage and were soon made to pay for their wastefulness in the second half.
Just two minutes after the break, Gabby George mistimed a clearance and it allowed Amy Andrews time to collect the ball, run at the defence and fire another effort into the goal past the debutant Middleton-Patel to make it 2-2.
United continued to push and finally poked their noses in front once more when Melvine Malard slipped in Grace Clinton who rounded the keeper and had good shot cleared off the line, but Rachel Williams showed predatory instinct to gobble up the rebound and put the home side in front for a third time on the night.
Sandberg once again showed off her fine delivery when she floated in a fantastic free kick that was headed home by a grateful Gabby George on 83 minutes to grab the home side’s fourth of the night.
United added a fifth on 88 minutes when substitutes Leah Galton and Elisabeth Terland combined well on the break. Galton broke away from the Newcastle defence and squared the ball for the Norwegian, who made no mistake with the finish.
There was still time for Lois Joel’s long range effort to squeeze past United’s keeper in the 93rd minute and finally bring an end to the goal scoring feast that both sides served up.
United have now booked their place in the quarter finals of the league cup and will hope that this competition will be the second they win in their history after last season’s FA Cup triumph.
The Women will next be in action when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon at 2pm UK time, in what will be their final match before the winter break.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
