IPSWICH Town Ladies manager Ollie Drake hailed his side’s growing confidence after they defeated AFC Wimbledon 5-1 to progress through to the FA Cup second round yesterday.

Shell Allum and Rosie Webb each grabbed a brace before Kat Parnell added gloss to the scoreline to secure progression for the hosts at Ipswich Wanderers’ Humber Doucy Lane ground.

“We did well in the end,” said Drake. “We looked very rusty because we haven’t played for a couple of weeks and we were really struggling to get a grip on the game.

“They equalised just before the break and a few words were said at half-time.

“But in the second half we took the game to them. We looked much more confident and made much better use of the ball.

“Each goal we scored was a great team goal. There were certainly no nerves in the second-half.

“Hopefully we can get a game in next week – otherwise our next fixture won’t be until after Christmas, which will be the next round of the cup.

“But we’ll be training over the Christmas period to ensure our confidence levels continue to rise and hopefully we can go on a great FA Cup run.”