The team was set up to deal with the power and pace of the Haringey midfield and for the first 15/20 mins this worked very well. We then suffered a few injuries which began to unsettle us a bit. Sarah Lloyd then fell awkwardly on her shoulder and a lengthy delay was the result. The delay seemed to affect us and from a Haringey free kick we failed to switch on and conceded a relatively soft goal. Haringey reacted to the ball while we appeared to stand and watch things happening around us. Things then took a turn for the worse as first Sarah Lloyd had to leave the field (on a stretcher with an ambulance having been called) and be replaced by Alex Leckie. This was followed by Amy Parker then going over on her ankle and having to go off for treatment. It was close to half time so we decided to look at Amy’s injury during the interval.

Half-Time 0-1

The second half started with Amy Parker not coming out of the changing room and Jo Woolnough taking her place. Although all our subs were now used we still had eleven players on the pitch. As the day had started and the game progressed that was soon to change and again for the worst. Sophie Barham started to hobble and within 5 mins of the restart we were down to ten as Sophie had to leave the game and was not to take any further part in the match. We then conceded a second goal and it looked inevitable that our exit from the competition was sealed. It was from this point that we showed a desire and determination that made light of the fact that we were a player short. Our work rate and belief resulted in us scoring a goal but unfortunately it was disallowed for offside. Undeterred we continue to compete with our pressure causing their centre half to head past her own keeper to reduce the deficit. Disappointingly the goal came too late and Haringey held on for the win. Although down about losing the manner of our defeat left room for optimism and softened to pain of going out of the competition at the first hurdle.

Full-Time 1-2 (og)