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# Saltmarsh win the Women’s Cup on penalties
- URL: https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/saltmarsh-win-the-womens-cup-on-penalties/
- Published: 2026-09-17T17:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-17T17:30:00.000Z
- Description: One hundred and twenty minutes, ten penalties and a goalkeeper who scored one and saved the last.
- Author: Ellie Bramwell
- Tags: Match reports, #score Saltmarsh 1-1 Ironworks, #comp Women’s Cup final, #venue Northern Stadium, #Import 2026-10-02 15:58

It took one hundred and twenty minutes, ten penalties and a save that nobody at the Northern Stadium will forget, but Saltmarsh are the Women's Cup winners for the first time in their history.

They beat Ironworks 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Their goalkeeper, Freya Lindqvist, saved the last penalty with her trailing leg, and then lay on the grass with her hands over her face while her team-mates fell on top of her.

![The Saltmarsh huddle before the shoot-out. Twenty minutes later, the celebration began.](https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/cup-team-1.jpg)

The Saltmarsh huddle before the shoot-out. Twenty minutes later, the celebration began.

## A final that was worth the wait

Eleven thousand people came to the Northern Stadium, a record for a women's match in the region, and for most of the afternoon they watched a final that was tight, tense and tactical. Ironworks, who have won the cup four times, were the favourites. Saltmarsh, who were promoted to the top division only two years ago, were not expected to be here at all.

For an hour, Ironworks controlled the game. Their midfield, led by the captain, Bethan Pryce, kept the ball in the way that has made them the best passing side in the league. Saltmarsh chased. And on fifty-eight minutes, Pryce found Kerry-Ann Morris on the edge of the area, and Morris curled the ball into the top corner.

## The equaliser

Saltmarsh's answer came from an unlikely place. Their centre-back, Amira Haddad, had not scored all season. With eleven minutes left, she went forward for a corner, lost her marker by the simple method of walking backwards two steps, and headed the ball in off the inside of the post.

> I told the girls at the start of the season I'd score in the final. I was joking.  
>  
> **Amira Haddad**

Extra time was exhausted and scrappy. Both teams had chances; both keepers made saves. Ironworks hit the post in the hundred and twelfth minute. And then it went to penalties.

## The shoot-out

| Round | Saltmarsh          | Ironworks             |
| ----- | ------------------ | --------------------- |
| 1     | Haddad — scored    | Pryce — scored        |
| 2     | Okafor — scored    | Morris — scored       |
| 3     | Brennan — saved    | Hale — scored         |
| 4     | Tanaka — scored    | Duarte — over the bar |
| 5     | Lindqvist — scored | Wilde — saved         |

It was the goalkeeper who took Saltmarsh's fifth penalty, and it was the goalkeeper who saved Ironworks' last. Lindqvist had been told she would take a penalty only if it came to it. When it did, she walked from her goal to the spot, placed the ball, and hit it into the roof of the net without looking at the keeper. Then she walked back, and dived the right way.

![The cup, which Saltmarsh have waited ninety-four years to lift.](https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/cup-trophy-1.jpg)

The cup, which Saltmarsh have waited ninety-four years to lift.

## What it means for Saltmarsh

The club was founded in 1932 as a works team at the salt refinery on the estuary. It was a men's club for most of its history. The women's team began in 1994, in a borrowed kit, on a pitch next to the refinery that flooded every winter. Some of the women who played in that first season were in the stand on Sunday. One of them, Maureen Tate, now seventy-one, was invited onto the pitch at the end to hold the trophy.

"We used to change in a shed," she said. "Look at this."

🏆

Saltmarsh qualify for next season's European competition for the first time. The draw is in December.

## And for Ironworks

For Ironworks, the defeat will hurt, and it should not. They played the better football for most of the afternoon. Their manager, Gwen Talbot, was gracious at the end, and walked across to the Saltmarsh bench to shake every hand.

"That's cup football," she said. "Some years it's your day. This year it was Freya's."

## How Saltmarsh got here

It is worth remembering how unlikely this was. Two seasons ago, Saltmarsh were playing in the second division in front of crowds of two hundred. Their manager, Carys Doherty, is a secondary school PE teacher who coaches in the evenings. Half of the squad work full-time: a nurse, two teachers, a trainee accountant and a woman who drives a delivery van.

On the way to the final they beat three top-division sides, all of them away from home. They won the semi-final against Rovers Women with a goal in the last minute of extra time. Doherty said before the final that her players had "nothing to lose and a lot of friends to impress". Afterwards, she could barely speak. "I have to be in school at eight tomorrow," she said. "I don't think I'll be much use."

## The record crowd

The attendance of eleven thousand is worth dwelling on. Five years ago, the Women's Cup final was played at a ground that holds four thousand, and it was half empty. This year the tickets sold out nine days before the game. Many of the people in the stand were girls under twelve, and most of them were wearing the blue and white of Saltmarsh by the end.

#### Who was player of the match?

Freya Lindqvist, the Saltmarsh goalkeeper, for two saves in extra time, a penalty and the winning save.

#### What was the attendance?

11,240, a record for a women's match at the Northern Stadium.