Blues beaten by Super League side
Pompey Ladies exited the FA Women’s Cup despite putting up a brave fight against Super League side Aston Villa at Sutton Coldfield.
Katie Wilkinson scored the only goal of the third round tie just past the hour mark, with a sweetly-struck volley beating Michelle Beazley.
But the Blues had started brightly and created several half-chances before Lucy Quinn forced a decent save from Jess Myers.
Beazley was also called into action before the interval and did well to twice deny Destiney Toussaint from opening the scoring.
There was plenty of action at both ends of the pitch, with Quinn and Nadine Bazan both narrowly failing to find the target, before Wilkinson steered a shot narrowly past the post.
Pompey were certainly not over-awed by the occasion and Myers kept out Gemma Hillier’s shot early in the second half, while Molly Clark’s free-kick was cleared from the line by Elisha N’Dow.
But Wilkinson’s strike deflated them and Villa were able to see out the rest of game without too many problems.
Blues boss Perry Northeast said: “We more than matched them from first minute to last and there wasn’t much between the sides.
“The game swung like a pendulum, with both sides having periods where they controlled the possession and had territorial advantage.
“It’s just unfortunate that it was Villa who ended up scoring the only goal to ensure we ended up on the losing side.
“A lot of people have told me that we should be proud and encouraged by our performance, but at the moment it still feels disappointing.
“We’re all desperate to be playing Super League football because we want to have games like these on a regular basis – that’s the ultimate goal.
“We’ve shown on a few occasions that we’re capable of taking on sides from that level and hopefully we’ll get there soon.
“But we have to maintain that high standard for the remainder of our Premier League campaign and look to move up the table.
“Now we’ve got a tough test against Cardiff – who also have Super League quality at times – so we’ll have to be at our best.”
Pompey: Beazley; Taylor, Clark, Rutherford, Bazan (Atkinson 84); Kempson, Sievwright, Bloomfield (Sherwood 69), Quinn; Hillier (Stephens 79), Umotong
Subs not used: Trodd, Benson
Absolutely gutted about yesterday's result, but to travel to Birmingham,and have louder fans than the home team was incredible! Thank you 💙
— Lucy Quinn (@LucyQuinn7) February 8, 2016