Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw broke the deadlock in Manchester City’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup Final victory with an inevitability that is well-appreciated by her teammates, having announced a new long-term contract extension earlier in the week.
Despite a dominant opening period from opponents Brighton & Hove Albion, Shaw landed the first blow in City’s 4-0 win to complete their domestic double at Wembley.
The goal settled the nerves of the Manchester side before Alex Greenwood added a second to all but seal it just before half time, with Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema adding further glitz after the break.
But Shaw proved exactly why City have pulled out all the stops to keep her in Manchester, winning the free-kick for Greenwood before assisting Fujino’s second-half strike.
Khadija Shaw and Alex Greenwood making the difference 🤩 pic.twitter.com/N5aeu0MkhV
— Adobe Women's FA Cup (@AdobeWFACup) May 31, 2026
“Games can be hard, but Bunny’s always there to rely on,” said Laura Blindkilde Brown. “She can just create something out of nothing and as a striker that’s really valuable to our team.
“When we scored the first goal and then we got the second after that, we relaxed a bit and started playing football.
“The first half was tough and then I think we got better in the second half and managed to dominate.”
Blindkilde Brown herself was at the centre of that, having established her place in a highly competitive Manchester City midfield despite the incomings of seasoned internationals Sydney Lohmann and Sam Coffey this season.
The 22-year-old operates alongside the technical ability of Yui Hasegawa, playing an important role in a historic season for the Manchester side, in which their domestic double represented their first silverware since League Cup victory in 2022.
Having last won the Barclays Women’s Super League in 2016 and FA Cup in 2020, the double coup represents their first-ever domestic double.
“We haven’t won silverware in a long time so to be able to win both this year is really nice. It just makes us hungry for more,” said Blindkilde Brown.
“Personally, I just try and take every game by game and I grow with confidence each game.
“I’m still young and there’s still a lot I need to improve every game and to learn from others around me.”
Khadija Shaw in the big moments: INEVITABLE 👏
— Adobe Women's FA Cup (@AdobeWFACup) May 31, 2026
📺 @C4Sport, @footballontnt and HBO Sports Max pic.twitter.com/GnXL8eb1Vc
For Blindkilde Brown and the rest of her City teammates, they will undoubtedly be thankful that the players to learn off continue to include Shaw.
But they were not all aware their competition top scorer would definitely be staying in City blue when she announced it on stage at their trophy celebration.
Blindkilde Brown added: “We didn’t know at the time so when we found out on stage it was a really nice moment. We all enjoyed it.”
Blindkilde Brown put in another all-action performance in City's engine room, as she helped her side gain control of the contest after a slow start.
Brighton were the better team for the opening half hour and boss Andrée Jeglertz pinpointed how the midfield battle was key to City pulling clear in the second half.
"Our first 30 minutes we struggled," he said. "We struggled especially with losing the ball too early in our build up. It was mostly because we were not in the positions that we talked about before. It gave us more problems than we needed.
"We solved it at half time, we did much better in the second half. The feeling [at half time] was we had control, we were two goals up, but our job was to be too better.
"We work on that every day, never be pleased, never be comfortable. If you become that even though you are leading 2-0, the next game will be a struggle. I felt that we didn’t do exactly what we talked about before the game but we did it much better second half."
