FAW Women's Cup Final: Cardiff City beat Briton Ferry Llansawel 4-0 to earn historic double
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Cardiff City's Eliza Collie celebrates after scoring her side's opening goal against Briton Ferry Llansawel
Cardiff City Women made it back-to-back FAW Women's Cup wins with a comfortable win over Briton Ferry Llansawel Ladies in Merthyr Tydfil.
Eliza Collie, Catherine Walsh, Ffion Price and Rhianne Oakley found the back of the net for Cardiff.
The win completed the double after clinching the Adran Premier title.
Briton Ferry's defeat came a week after the disappointment of missing out on promotion to Wrexham in a play-off final.
Cardiff were unbeaten in winning the Adran Premier and underlined the difference in quality in front of a 515-strong crowd at Penydarren Park.
Despite battling hard, Llansawel struggled to make any real impact up front, their one shot of note from striker Mollie Jones easily smothered by Cardiff goalkeeper Ceryn Chamberlain.
Almost immediately after that Cardiff were ahead, youngster Collie her toe poking under squirming goalkeeper Courtney Young before the ball trickled into the net.
Cardiff soon had a second, Collie's strike partner Walsh stealing in behind a static Llansawel defence to tap in from a delicious Megan Bowen cross.
Cardiff threatened from set-pieces throughout, Siobhan Walsh going close before Young pulled off a stunning double save, diving to her left to deny Zoe Atkins' fiercely struck half volley before palming Walsh's header over the bar one-handed from the resulting corner.
However, a corner would be her undoing as Price whipped in another delivery towards the front post and caught Young unawares as the ball cannoned off her and into the net.
The second half lacked the tempo of the first with both sides making changes.
But after substitute Phoebie Poole missed a glorious chance to make it four, fellow changes Mikayla Cook and Rhianne Oakley combined with the latter sliding in at the far post to score.
Cardiff City manager Iain Darbyshire:
"We knew they were going to be difficult to play against, we knew what we were up against. We focused this week on moving the ball quickly, finding the little pockets between units, after the first 15 minutes I thought we did that really well for the rest of the first half probably could have got a few more goals and then second half we asked them to be entertaining.
"I think the intensity was sucked out of the game a little, we didn't play great but in a cup final it's all about the win and we're so proud to be part of this football club, to represent Cardiff City and bring back two trophies."
On Ffion Price Darbyshire said: "She's got a David Beckham right foot, she can insure that for a million pound if she'd want to. She's unbelievable, but it's not just her - Meg Bowen put a great cross in, Mikayla Cook when she came on. We knew they were going to give us the wide areas so we practices that all week and I thought we did that really well and executed the game plan to a T."
Briton Ferry midfielder Lucy Powell: "We knew it was going to be a tough game against Cardiff City, obviously they won the Adran Premier and they're defending champions of this cup so we knew it was going to be hard, so we came out with a foundation to try and defend them well, but at the end of the day they were the better team and they've come away with four goals."
On the end of their season, Powell said: "I think last week we found that quite hard, I think that [promotion] was our main goal for the season, obviously nice to reach the Welsh cup final as well, but the main goal was to get to the Premier League and we obviously fell short of that.
"Everyone's disappointed, but I think we need to go away and be proud of our performances this year because we did win the league and try and go that one step further next year."
Cardiff City Women FC: Chamberlain; Price, H Power, S Walsh, Bowen, Price, Broadhurst, Pearce, Green, Atkins, Collie, C Walsh .
Substitutes: Hawkins, Owen, Oakley, Poole, Cook.
Briton Ferry Llansawel: Young; Llewellyn, Clayton, Ridings, Broadley, Deacon, Jenkins, Smitham, Howells, Kearle, M Jones.
Substitutes: Powell, Roberts, Baker, Descombe, Thomas.
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