Cross with milestone in sight
Jade Cross is eyeing a special personal achievement as well as helping Wolves to cement their top of the table position in Sunday's meeting at Castlecroft with the National League Division 1 Midlands bottom team Burton Albion.
Cross needs just one goal to equal her tally of 32 last season – the prolific striker's best ever scoring campaign – and she should be feeling confident after hitting a hat-trick in the away win against the Brewers in September.
"My aim at the start of the season was to beat my total for last year," says the 24-year-old goal-getter, "and hopefully I can do that as soon as possible. I'm not setting any targets after that though, I won't put any pressure on myself.
"The most important thing anyway in terms of goals is that we're scoring a lot more as a team this season. That means we're picking up more points, and I think that counts more than any individual player's achievements."
Cross had a rare outing without a goal last Sunday, though in the 4-0 home win against Long Eaton United she unluckily struck the woodwork with a fine effort and was brought down for a penalty just as she looked set to score.
The clear-cut victory was a third in succession in league fixtures against teams that are in promotion contention, following 2-0 wins against both Birmingham & West Midlands and Lincoln City in the previous three weeks.
"It's been a great little spell for us," says Cross. "It was three pressure games in a row and we handled it really well. Now we've got a couple of games coming up against teams at the bottom end of the table and we've got to try to cash in."
Cashing in with maximum returns from today's match and next week's visit to fourth-bottom Leicester United could see Wolves increase their already formidable lead of nine points at the head of the Division 1 table.
And Cross will without doubt be aiming to cash in herself as she looks to add to her 31-goal haul – which includes no fewer than six hat-tricks – from just 21 appearances (four as substitute) during the season to date.
We are like a wolf pack. We are like a very big family.