Notts County reach second final after winning at Liverpool

Ellen White says Notts County are determined to put their SSE Women’s FA Cup heartbreak behind them after securing a place in the FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup final at the expense of Liverpool.

The England strike opened the scoring at the Select Security Stadium on five minutes and doubled her tally midway through the opening period to settle the semi-final clash.

County, who lost in the SSE Women's FA Cup Final against Chelsea at Wembley in August, will now face Arsenal at the New York Stadium in Rotherham on 1 November and White is keen to get one over her former club.

"We were very disappointed not to perform as well as we can at Wembley against Chelsea,” said White. “It was an incredible occasion and we wanted to do well so this is another milestone for us.

"We know what it takes, we understand the preparation and it was a great step for us to play at Wembley. We are looking forward to playing Arsenal and, for me, I'm very excited to be playing my old team. We are very excited to end the season with a big final and potentially win a cup.

Liverpool's Hannah Dale contests a high ball with Notts County's Laura Bassett

“I thought the intensity was really high and the team played really well in the first half. The second half was a lot more defensive but we really dug it out and stuck together as a team which is what we wanted to do.”

The game had begun brightly for the Reds with Rosie White’s third-minute corner coming back off the bar.

But County hit back almost immediately when an excellent left-wing free-kick from Danielle Buet was flicked on by Laura Bassett for White to fire in a header at the near post past a motionless Danielle Gibson.

Jess Clarke almost doubled the lead moments before the half hour before White and Buet combined again for an excellent second which saw the former stretch to poke in the midfielder’s accurate right-wing centre after 23 minutes.

Desiree Scott, Jess Clarke and Leanne Crichton celebrate County's win

With Liverpool on the ropes, Rachel Williams missed a free header to make it three before the same player saw another chance cleared off the line by Ingrid Ryland.

Liverpool will now turn their attentions to the second leg of their UEFA Women’s Champions League round of 32 clash against Brescia on Wednesday where they will look to overturn a 1-0 deficit.

“Wednesday is one of the most important games of our season,” said Liverpool midfielder Katie Zelem. “A win at home puts us through to the next round and we are confident we can achieve that. We have a lot of fans and they are very loud so hopefully that can help us.

“Fara Williams is returning which means we have much more experience and a bit of composure on the pitch.

“We had a lot of youngsters playing tonight but I thought we gave it a really good go in the second half and played with our hearts on our sleeves.”

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Liverpool (4-3-3): Danielle Gibbons; Ingrid Ryland, Shannon Beckwith, Satara Murray, Mayumi Pacheco; Hannah Dale, Katrin Ormarsdottir, Katie Zelem; Ashley Hodson, Natasha Dowie, Rosie White

Substitutes: Lucy Staniforth for Dale 60, Mollie Green for White 72, Fara Williams for Zelem 81

Substitutes not used: Rachel Darbyshire, Fara Williams, Olivia Wild

Notts County (4-3-3): Carly Telford; Sophie Walton, Amy Turner, Laura Bassett, Alex Greenwood; Danielle Buet, Desiree Scott, Leanne Crichton; Jess Clarke, Rachel Williams, Ellen White

Substitutes: Aileen Whelan for White 87

Substitutes not used: Siobhan Chamberlain, Fern Whelan, Ashleigh Plumptre, Alice Hassall, Laura-Jayne O’Neill.

Goals: 

Referee: Ian Hussin

Attendance: 538