Abbie Brown does not want to share

Leeds United are on a roll and in no mood to slow down. Discount their fair-enough FA Cup pasting at the hands of Champions League opponents Arsenal and the Whites are unbeaten in eight matches, with hope the best is yet to come — two cup competitions still to be battled, league destiny there to be written.

At the start of a big week of three big fixtures, head coach Rick Passmoor took a ‘holistic’ approach for the most routine of the lot, a County Cup quarter-final against seventh-tier Yorkshire Amateurs. Key players got Sunday off while squad members scrapped for a more permanent place in his affections.

A week after bagging a double hat-trick inside ninety minutes in a Leeds Under-23s friendly, January signing Jess Rousseau was sent through on goal early in the cup tie by a stunning ball forward from Danielle Witham. Yorkshire Amateurs keeper Eboney Stewart charged down her shot, but when the ball sprang loose Rousseau could only watch opposing defender Georgia Rae-Ellis take the glory by deflecting the save into her own net. If Passmoor hoped for a straightforward win manufactured by fresh faces, it was so far so good with five minutes gone.

Against bottom-placed Merseyrail last week, Leeds’ really great start had an asterisk next to it by half time. This time out, the Whites didn’t wait so long to take the shine off.

It should be easier to stake a claim for a starting place against weaker opposition, but it’s paradoxically tougher to show flair against a disorganised team. Holding shape when your opponents are structureless is like trying to draw a circle with your eyes closed. Chuck combinations of players who aren’t used to lining up together into the mix and it’s the perfect recipe for loss of face.

Direct from the restart following Leeds’ opener, an Amateurs’ throw entered the field while Catherine Hamill was caught between fixing Kanisha-Mae Underdown’s positioning and back-pedalling onto new centre-back partner Izzy Elliott’s toes. Ammas’ Tanya Fozzard had nicked the ball and finished from an impressively tight angle before Whites’ keeper Carrie Simpson could say ‘this is how we do, Illan’.

It was time for the regulars to take charge. One player who wasn’t allowed to put her feet up was Abbie Brown and, on her watch, no one was laying a glove, not even a solitary finger, on her number 9 shirt as she completed her second hat-trick in as many weeks.

With the score level, the visitors held out for half an hour before Brown’s marker, who hadn’t seen her opponent’s name all over last weekend’s headlines, let the Whites’ top scorer run free. When Stewart couldn’t hold Paige Williams’ shot, Brown tucked the ball away, leaving the keeper in a sad heap on the floor.

A chance for a new hero to step forward came on the stroke of half time as a poorly-cleared corner put Hamill in the box with the ball at her feet. She shimmied past one red shirt before another took a sideways swipe that brought Hamill and the narrative to a crashing stop. Enter Brown to take the penalty.

If it weren’t enough to deny Brown her fifth goal of the fortnight, the post also robbed Stewart of what would later have been remembered as a moment of heroic redemption since the luckless ‘keeper had dived the right way. It was joyless all round as Leeds headed into the break with a one-goal lead.

Stewart and Brown were back to fight another round after the break, and this time, it was almost friendly. Sandra Soares-Martins put it on a plate for Brown, but her first touch caused the ball to bounce awkwardly so her shot was weak. Getting it so-nearly-right, Stewart’s stop served as an attractive one-two. With all the triumph of a dinner lady cleaning up her second spill of the day, Brown scored and left Stewart rolling on the floor, furious with herself.

With the game already put to bed, Rousseau looked possessed with ambition as she robbed Ammas’ Molly Asher of the ball inside her own half and dribbled past two players for a shot at goal. It struck the post, and who should be there to seize the spoils but Brown, scooping it goalwards. At the third time of asking, Stewart saved her the follow-up by palming it into the net.

Prolific assister Stewart had thrown everything at thwarting Passmoor’s plan to spread the goals around. But she could invent no calamity to stop substitute Macy Ellis scoring the most normal goal of the afternoon. Speed, muscle, and a tidy finish combined for Leeds’ fifth — Brown, finally, had nothing to do with it. ⬢