West Bromwich Albion Women will kick off their Birmingham County FA Challenge Cup campaign at home to Leafield Athletic on Sunday.
The Baggies fell at the penultimate hurdle last season, losing in the semi-final, 3-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers Women.
These sides faced each other in the third round last year with West Brom coming out 5-0 victors away at Leafield earlier this year.
Leafield have had a tough start to their National League Division One Midlands season, sitting in the bottom two with only four points from a possible 21.
They’re six games without a win and have lost five of their last six, conceding 14 and scoring two. However, they snapped their losing streak with a goalless draw away to Sheffield FC last Sunday.
Meanwhile, West Brom have had a mixed start to their Women’s National League season, winning two, drawing one and losing three of their opening games.
West Brom are coming off of a humiliating 7-2 loss away to black country rivals, Stourbridge in the week and manager Siobhan Hodgetts-Still will be expecting to see a reaction from her side in their cup opener.
Prior to that loss, the Baggies were unbeaten in three games in all competitions, including an emphatic 4-1 win at the Hawthorns to Huddersfield, as well as, a dramatic late win in the Women’s National League Cup away to league rivals Liverpool Feds.
It is expected that Hodgetts-Still will field a heavily rotated side for the competition, playing a number of academy players, to try and get a look at the new era of players coming through the ranks.
Leafield haven’t won a game in this competition since January 2022 when they beat Rugby Borough, 5-0 in the third round before travelling to Sunday’s opponents, West Brom, 5-1 in the quarter-finals of that year’s cup.
After that win the Baggies managed to get to the final but fell 4-1 to Wolves, as they did in the semi-final of the 2022/23 edition of the cup.
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The fixture will take place at the West Brom Academy, just across the road from the iconic Hawthorns stadium in West Bromwich.
