Huddersfield Town Ladies are out of the SSE Women's FA Cup as they were defeated 2-1 at the Stafflex Arena, Storthes Hall, by Southern Division side Lewes FC.

 

It was the first competitive fixture Town had played since their last FA Cup tie where they beat West Bromwich Albion 7-0.

 

There were two big talking points in a first half, the first came on the 9th minute when Katie Nutter's goal was disallowed. Nutter was able to latch onto a Kate Mallin free kick, however the referee stopped Town celebrating as he gave a foul on a Lewes FC player.

 

Town were close to opening the scoring on a number of occasions, however it was Mallin's long range curling free kick which went closest as it rebounded back off of the post.

 

Town went in at half time disappointed that they weren't ahead, it was the away side that came out the much more positive at the start of the second half. 

 

The South coast based club took the lead on the 59th minute, the away side were awarded a penalty when Vicky Carleton was tripped in the box by a Town player. 

 

Lewes's Avilla Bergin took the spot kick, but it was saved onto the post by Town keeper Laura Carter. However the ball rebounded off of the post and into the path of Lewes player Rebecca Carter who tapped home.

 

Town equalized just two minutes later when Mallin charged into the opposition box, she passed the ball to Brittany Sanderson who slotted home with ease. 

 

The game then became a real rock & roll affair as both sides went for the winner, both teams had various half-chances with Town going close on a number of occasions, but just not being able to find the killer pass or shot on goal. 

 

The winner came from Katie Mcintyre on the 81st minute as her effort from outside the area wasn't charged down, the shot floated over the Town keeper to put the home side out of the cup. 

 

Town's goalkeeper Laura Carter is disappointed that the team has gone our of the FA Cup, but says that the girls must move on quickly and now concentrate on the next fixture which is against Leicester City in the league next Sunday. 

 

She said of the loss to Lewes: "I thought the game was evenly matched, especially in the first half. Both sides had chances to win it, but obviously only one team can and today unfortunately it wasn't us. However I do believe that, to say that was our first competitive fixture since our last last FA Cup tie, I don't think we played that bad. 

 

"On another day if we'd had some luck on our side like for the penalty we would have won that game. Unfortunately the penalty hit me in a certain way which meant when it came back off of the post one of their players was in the right position to score, if it had hit me differently she would have never had scored it.

 

"I think she made a lot of it to be honest when she went down, she went down in a very dramatic style, but then again if that would have been for us we would have been shouting for that all day long. 

 

"We should have picked up their player for the second goal, we were slow to charge the effort down which is disappointing. That is something we'll have to learn from, there's nothing much I could have done for that goal, it just floated over my head.

 

"We'll be looking to bounce back next week against Leicester and we'll be out to get all three points because the girls will want to make up for that loss today."

 

Meanwhile Town's assistant head coach Sarah Dobby was also disappointed that Town have had an early exit from the competition.

 

Dobby commented: "I thought we were unlucky it could have gone either way at the end, I thought we were the better team overall, but unfortunately it's gone their way.

 

"We just couldn't find that cutting edge to really make things count, you can see that when we turn it on like we did for our goal, we can really rip teams up, but we didn't do that enough throughout the game. 

 

"The players thought that the disallowed goal should have been given and there wasn't a foul in there. Then hitting the post shows that the luck just wasn't on our side today. 

 

"We always want to try and do well in this competition, everyone wants to go as far as they can in the FA Cup or to get a big team at your home ground, this year it isn't to be, and now we can concentrate on the County Cup and the league moving forward."

 

Match report by Steven Downes

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Mascot for the days was 10 year old Evie Franks and she is picutred before the game with Sarah Danby.