Birmingham City needed a late goal to knock Sunderland out of the Women’s FA Cup, while holders Manchester City overran Ipswich Town.
WFA Cup 5th Round results – 16 February
Arsenal P-P Lewes Women (now 23 Feb)
Leicester City WFC P-P Reading
Crystal Palace P-P Brighton & Hove Albion
Manchester City 10-0 Ipswich Town
Sunderland 0-1 Birmingham City (Att: 492)
Both the underdogs in the two ties to beat Storm Dennis on Sunday bowed out of the competition but in very differing circumstances.
FA WNL Northern Premier leaders Sunderland held out until the last five minutes against Birmingham City who are two divisions their senior, while Ipswich Town – top of FA WNL Division 1 South East – went down to a double-figure defeat at holders Manchester City, who play three tiers above them.
Birmingham leave it late
Black Cats’ keeper Claudia Moan was forced into a diving save by Lucy Staniforth, who volleyed over the bar from close range in stoppage-time at the end of the first half.
Claudia Walker saw her powerful effort from the edge of the area turned over the bar my Moan, who then made a double-save to deny both Abbi Grant and Brianna Visalli.
Sunderland also went close twice in quick succession, firstly through Neve Herron and then Mollie Lambert played in Bridget Galloway but she fired over under pressure.
Late drama saw Staniforth break the deadlock by burying a free kick but then receive a red card before the restart.
The 8 minutes were added on due to a delay in ejecting a spectator from the ground and in the 96th minute Keira Ramshaw flicked the ball goalward but Alex Brooks made the save.
Three hat-tricks as holders ease through
Laura Cooombs opened the scoring on 19 minutes for Manchester City, Pauline Bremer and Jess Park adding one each for a 3-0 interval lead over Ipswich Town.
Bremer scored twice more to complete her hat-trick on 64 minutes, with Georgia Stanway netting after each of those two goals.
A couple more for Park then rounded off her treble and Stanway took the total to ten with her third of the afternoon.
Monday 17 February
Chelsea v Liverpool (Kingsmeadow, 7pm)
Bristol City v Everton (Bristol City FC, 7.30pm)
Coventry United v Tottenham Hotspur (Coventry United FC, 7.45pm)
