Manchester United Women 5-0 Newcastle Women: Nikita Parris scores brace as hosts book FA Cup fifth round berth to take pressure off under-fire Marc Skinner
- Manchester United defeated Newcastle 5-0 in the Women’s FA Cup
- Nikita Parris scored twice after Ella Toone opened the scoring
- Young Man United fans sing songs about players who didn’t even play in their lifetime. Some of them have no heroes. It’s damn – It all starts
In a week where the ‘Skinner out’ chant was reportedly stopped and then defended by Marc Skinner himself, the last thing the Manchester United manager needed was to lose to a team two divisions below, albeit against a side that had a lot of confidence.
Newcastle are flying at the top of the northern third division. Since taking over two years ago, the women’s team has gone fully professional and they now have their sights set on a meteoric rise to the WSL and their numbers show they mean business.
In 2023 they were undefeated. In their last three league games alone they won by a total of 23-3.
And thanks to Becky Langley’s team who started the match well, pressed energetically and almost forced an uncharacteristic error from Mary Earps.
But it was Ella Toone, looking more like a vigilante than a footballer, who acted first to save United’s fortunes.
Ella Toone (centre) opened the scoring as Manchester United defeated Newcastle 5-0 in the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup
Nikita Parris scored twice as United booked their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup
Newcastle were flying at the top of the northern third division but were no match for United on Sunday afternoon
“Come on girls” she shouted to her team after that near-wobble and it was the masked No 7 who broke the deadlock in the 28th minute by curling the ball into the top left corner with her left hand from the edge of the penalty area. foot.
Toone’s opener seemed to suck the life out of the visitors and as rain poured down on an almost freezing Leigh Sports Village in Manchester, United turned up the heat. A brace for Nikita Parris and a goal for Rachel Williams and Melvine Malard made the final score 5-0.
The Reds have suffered shaky form in the league this season, mainly due to the movement of players that upset the established balance of last season.
But as many teams have come to know and love, the FA Cup provides a clean slate and today’s decisive win will give them the confidence to push on and go all out.
They were unlucky to lose to Chelsea in the final at Wembley last season and will be hoping they can make up for that defeat.
“Last year we were in the final and we want to try to go one stage better,” Skinner said after the race.
‘It was a professional performance (by United). I liked the rivalry between the fans.
‘We could only win. Regardless of the outcome.
All we could do was win, that’s what we’re here for, but seeing these two sets of passionate fans was a highlight of our career so far. It made it different.’
“I don’t think it will be long before they are in the WSL, I really don’t. They were fit with us. They fell off towards the end because of the way we played, but I felt like they were in a good place.”
For the Newcastle fans with their ‘Howay the lasses’ flags rising in their numbers, today was not to be.
In a match that was described in advance as ‘the most exciting in the club’s history’, they could not cause the commotion they had hoped for.
But as the team proudly took their team photo in front of their supporters after the final whistle, they felt like this was just the beginning for this emerging side.
