Another exciting FA Cup game for the Ladies, who were once again denied progress in the competition in the final minute, before being knocked out in extra time. Early on, the Dagenham and Redbridge efforts were kept to along range and Tina Hills had no problems dealing with them. However, after just eight minutes, one of the home midfielders ran in to lift the ball over Tina from 8 yards out to give them the lead. It was the start of a little period of pressure in which they blasted a shot over the bar and Hills made a good save from the goalscorer, Morgan, in a similar position to her earlier successful strike. Lucy Auguste almost sliced a ball into her own net, but it cleared the bar, although Hills saved a header low down form the resulting corner. In between, Lucy broke through into the Daggers box and hit a shot wide. Spurs had to replace the injured Jenny Curtis with Kim McGhee just after the half hour and she was immediately under pressure as D&R pressed forward. One shot flew past the post, Tina saved another and then Morgan just beat the Spurs keeper to the ball, but it lobbed just wide. Lucy Auguste was Tottenham's main threat in the first half and hit a 35 yard shot about a yard wide and as the half drew to a close, a scramble form a Tottenham corner produced a bit of panic in the penalty area. La Toyah Johnson limped off just before the break, as she sustained an injury when a Dagenham player rolled on her and she could not continue. Ruth Waghorn was her replacement in the second half and after the restart of the game, Tottenham stunned Dagenham and Redbridge with three goals in seven minutes. Almost straight from the kick off, Tottenham moved the ball forward and two minutes into the half, Zoella took the ball into the right hand channel in the area and shot across the keeper to make it 1-1. Within a minute, she had given Tottenham the lead with a run in the same area, but this time, she rounded the keeper and slipped the ball into an unguarded net. On 52 minutes, a free kick was given to Spurs out on their left wing. Dead ball expert Kelly Herrett swung in a high ball that the diminutive goalie could not reach and it soared into the net to put Tottenham 3-1 ahead. With a couple of home subs coming on to add some pace up front, Spurs managed to break up play, but in the 70th minute Tina did well to push away a shot from Barker coming in from the right wing. Morgan had another chance but ballooned the ball over the bar from eight yards out, then D&R had claims for a penalty waved away by the ref for what was an innocuous challenge. It was only two minutes after this though that the ball was worked through the middle of the Tottenham defence and Dunsdon scored from close in. Tottenham held out against some strong attacking on the left wing, then found time to break away when Blackmore had a shot saved from 20 yards out. With five minutes left, Dunsdon was booked for a series of kicks at Lucy Auguste. Then in the last minute, the ball was played in, the ball was knocked down by a D&R forward to two players standing unmarked, and suspiciously offside, on the edge of the six yard box and Sinclair knocked the ball past Hills to make it 3-3. Even then, Tottenham had a corner at the other end and Sparrow's kick was met by Auguste's head. Fearon flicked the ball on and it hit the bar, came down and into the arms of the keeper without crossing the line. So, for the second time this season, extra time was required for Spurs in this competition. With a couple of players feeling knocks, D&R had the lion's share of the play and Sinclair had a chance to lob Tina early on, but drifted the ball wide. However, 11 minutes in to extra time, there was a lot of space down the Tottenham left for a low cross to be put into the Spurs area and Sinclair beat Hills to the ball and prodded it home. Tottenham's chances were made even more difficult when Kelly Herrett limped off with 17 minutes still remaining to leave just ten players to see out the match. The second half of extra time started with Tina saving a shot from the edge of the box, then six minutes into this section of the game, a cross in from the right wing saw Greenwood move into the area and steer a volley past Hills who was coming out to take the ball. At 3-5, Tottenham had little to lose and went to three at the back to push forward. The defence had to work hard to block a succession of shots, but with three minutes left Gill broke free on the left, but her shot was agonisingly close, but went wide. Hills was called into action again, hewn she made a terrific reflex stop on the edge of her box, when a forward hit a 25 yard shot, but then play switched to the other end, with Auguste dragging a shot wide from just inside the penalty area. With time running out, a low free-kick into the box nearly crept past Hills, but she just got enough on it to deflect it wide of the far post. So, at the final whistle the majority of the 250 crowd were ecstatic and although it was probably a good game to watch for the neutral, for Spurs fans, the enforced changes before and during the game, had affected the possible outcome. With the same opponents due to face Spurs next week, it will be interesting to see the result of that game.
