Young goalkeeper Emma Gibbon scored the decisive spot kick on her competitive debut to give Spurs Ladies a dramatic 10-9 penalty shootout victory against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Continental Tyres Cup at Cheshunt on Sunday, writes Rosie Bonass.
Spurs were in control at half-time with a 2-0 advantage thanks to goals from Rianna Dean and Megan Wynne, but Victoria Williams’ effort gave the Women’s Super League 1 side hope after the break, before Ini Umotong grabbed an injury time equaliser for the visitors.
For the second week running, the game was forced into penalties, in line with the Continental Tyres Cup rules, to determine who would get the bonus point up for grabs in Group One South.
Sophie McLean, Coral-Jade Haines, Dean and Anna Filbey all converted their penalties calmly but as Sophie Perry missed for Albion, so did Wendy Martin for the Lilywhites. The drama continued and Lucia Leon, Renée Hector, Jenna Schillaci, Wynne and Ashleigh Neville all scored to keep the side’s hopes alive.
And after the penalty disappointment against Crystal Palace last weekend, it was Spurs’ time to celebrate as Gibbon’s penalty kick secured the victory, following a miss by Lucy Gillett.
Triumph in the shootout meant that Spurs took two points from the game and moved up to third place in their group, ahead of London Bees, Yeovil Town and Brighton.
Karen Hills made three changes to the team that started against Palace last weekend as she handed 19-year-old Gibbon and Filbey their competitive debuts since joining the Lilywhites in the summer and introduced McLean into the midfield.
Spurs got off to a flying start and were one up after seven minutes as Albion goalkeeper Sophie Harris only managed to clear an effort on goal from Angela Addison into Dean’s path who converted calmly from close range.
Addison caused havoc for the Albion defence all afternoon and in a similar scenario to the first goal, Harris spilled a shot from the forward, but this time it was Wynne who was in the right place at the right time to slot home for 2-0.
Spurs looked most impressive out of the two sides and they should have led by three goals, but a strike from Neville was ruled off-side just before the half-time whistle.
As expected, Hope Powell’s side came out raring to go in the second period and some early pressure led to a goal from Williams, who drilled a deflected shot from Laura Rafferty inside Gibbon’s left-hand post after 51 minutes.
The away side had two more opportunities to equalise, the first came from Jenna Legg, who was denied superbly by Gibbon and then, eight minutes from full-time, Aileen Whelan had the ball in the back of the net, only to see her effort ruled out for off-side.
Second-half substitute Haines had a crack on goal late on and came extremely close from a free-kick on the left wing, but it went just inches off target.
However, Albion continued to pile on the pressure and came up with a dramatic 91st-minute equaliser as Umotong headed in a cross from Sophie Perry to make it 2-2.
There followed the shootout drama, with Gibbon the hero.
