Spurs Ladies departed the SSE Women’s FA Cup in the fifth round following a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in front of a record crowd at Cheshunt FC, writes Rosie Bonass.
It was an impressive turnout with 1,158 fans in attendance - a new Spurs Ladies record at Theobalds Lane, which previously stood at 650 when they beat Charlton Athletic on penalties to claim the Ryman Women’s Cup in April, 2016.
The Lilywhites contained the Women’s Super League front-runners for over 35 minutes, before City and England Lionesses’ captain Steph Houghton broke the deadlock with a flawless free-kick.
Lauren Hemp and Gemma Bonner converted the other goals for the visitors and Ellie Roebuck prevented Spurs from pulling one back with a penalty save to deny Angela Addison late into the second half.
Manager Karen Hills made two changes to her side as Bianca Baptiste and Emma Beckett started ahead of Sarah Wiltshire and Jessica Naz, who were both named on the bench.
The home side frustrated City in the early stages, particularly the WSL’s record goalscorer Nikita Parris, whose header was saved comfortably by Chloe Morgan in the 13th minute, before Megan Wynne made an excellent block to deny her shot on goal just two minutes later.
City’s breakthrough came after 37 minutes from a set piece. Rianna Dean’s England Under-21s team-mate Hemp was fouled in the middle of the pitch by Wynne, before Houghton stepped up to place the free kick into the bottom left corner.
Two minutes later, City doubled their lead after Claire Emslie’s long ball found Hemp who chipped it beyond Morgan.
City piled on the pressure before the break as Caroline Weir’s shot almost beat Morgan from distance, before Parris rattled the crossbar.
Five minutes after the interval, the away side got a third goal from a corner. Morgan made an initial save to stop Jennifer Beattie’s header, but Bonner was positioned perfectly to slot in the rebound from close range.
The visitors had the ball in the back of the net seven minutes later, but this time Morgan got her fingertips to Houghton’s free kick, before Parris tapped in the rebound which was ruled offside.
Spurs had their chances against the 2017 FA Cup winners at the other end of the pitch as Wynne sent a dangerous ball in for Dean who headed inches wide and shortly after, Beckett struck a powerful free kick forcing Roebuck into conceding a corner.
The Lilywhites were awarded a penalty in the 76th minute after Georgia Stanway bundled substitute Addison down in the 18-yard box. After winning the penalty, the young attacker stepped up to take the spot-kick, but her effort to Roebuck’s bottom left was saved.
“I thought we held our own and we can come away with a lot of positives,” manager Karen Hills said at full-time. “We definitely could have caused an upset, and if the penalty would have gone in, who knows. I’m really pleased for the girls and that’s where we want to be, we want to be playing top opposition week in, week out. Credit to our girls, I thought we defended immensely in that first period and restricted them to very few chances. The girls really put our game plan into action. We knew set-pieces would be a problem and it was an excellent finish for the goal from the England captain. The players deserve a lot of credit and we’re just thankful to all the supporters for coming out. We’ve had a really good crowd and hopefully we’ve made everyone proud because we’ve come on a big journey and this is another step to where we want to go.”
Captain Jenna Schillaci added: “We’re really pleased with the performance, despite the scoreline. We had a game plan and I thought we stuck to it really well. It was unfortunate to give the set-pieces away, but they are quality players and we knew if we did give them chances then they would probably take them. We always believe in ourselves and we knew our qualities. At half-time the coaches wanted us to press more, we came out all guns blazing and we did put them under pressure and created some chances so we’re happy with that performance.”
