FA Cup heartbreak for Brighouse Town Women as Sunderland sneak through

Rob Mitchell’s side did everything but score and they were punished by a moment of brilliance, and a dash of controversy, by the visitors’ Emily Scarr after 65 minutes.

The ball appeared to touch her hand as she brought the ball under control but there was no arguing with her strike from 25 yards into the top corner.

However the controversy couldn’t disguise the fact that Brighouse could have been 3-0 at half-time if they’d taken their chances.

Cheered on by a noisy crowd of 212 at the Yorkshire Payments Stadium the home side could have scored in the opening minute but Drew Greene had her shot blocked by the outstretched foot of Sunderland’s goalkeeper Allison Cowling.

Despite the heavy pitch both teams played at an electric pace and Brighouse almost scored the goal of the season after 24 minutes.

A quick throw by goalkeeper Imogen Maguire found Cara Fields, whose pass freed Leah Embley down the left hand side. Her whipped in cross was met on the edge of the six yard box by Amy Woodruff but her shot hit the crossbar.

At the other end Keira Ramshaw had the ball in back of the net after Holly Manders’ header crashed off the crossbar but the goal was ruled out for offside.

However the clearest chances continued to fall to Brighouse and Woodruff in particular. She sent a header from a pinpoint Kayleigh Bamforth cross just wide and then saw a turn and shot narrowly miss the target with the last kick of the first half.

Sunderland started the second period with far more attacking intent.

A free-kick found Emma Kelly unmarked on the edge of the box after 60 minutes but she was denied by a flying save from Maguire.

As Brighouse backed off Sunderland scored the only goal of the match five minutes later when Scarr let fly from outside of the box.

With nothing to lose the home team bombed forward but Woodruff’s 80th minute shot from an Embley cross was brilliantly saved by Sunderland goalkeeper Cowling.

Maguire was sent forward in the frantic final minute in search of an equaliser but Sunderland’s defence couldn’t be breached.

Midfielder Sophie John was voted player of the match but manager Rob Mitchell praised the whole team.

“Football is a game of fine margins and we wouldn’t have been flattered to have been 2-0 or 3-0 up at half-time,” he said.

“Sunderland came into the game in the second half and we backed off a bit. We felt we were really unlucky with the winning goal but they’re the fine margins I’m talking about.

“The fact we’re disappointed to lose to a Championship side by a disputed goal tells you how far we’ve come but we have to dust ourselves and go again."