Spurs Women blitz Barnsley in FA Cup

Spurs Women progressed to the fifth round of the Women's FA Cup with a comfortable 5-0 victory over Barnsley at the Hive on Sunday.

A brace from Rianna Dean and a wonderful free-kick from Siri Worm put us in control at the break. A second-half strike from Gemma Davison – her first for the Club – and a first senior goal for Elisha Sulola then put the icing on the cake and made sure that our name will be in the hat for Monday’s fifth-round draw.

Karen Hills and Juan Amoros made seven chances to the side that lost 3-0 to Manchester United last week, introducing Worm, Lucia Leon, Jenna Schillaci, Chloe Peplow, Coral-Jade Haines, Rosella Ayane and Kit Graham to the starting XI.

It looked as if they were all keen to make their mark as we made a strong start to the match and very nearly took the lead within the opening five minutes – a speculative long-range strike from Peplow left Bethan Davies scrambling across her goal in order to parry it away to safety.

FA Women’s National League Division One North side Barnsley’s resilience didn’t last much longer, though. Another shot from distance, this time from Graham, caused Davies more problems and Dean was there to follow up on the Barnsley keeper’s parried save and tap the ball into an empty net in the 20th minute.

Five minutes later, our advantage was doubled. Chloe Turner hauled down Rosella Ayane just outside the penalty area and Worm curled the free-kick into the top corner to give us a two-goal cushion.

Dean then got her second goal and our third of the afternoon when Ayane, again involved, was tripped in the box and a penalty was awarded in the 27th minute. The 21-year-old made no mistake from 12 yards, driving her effort down the middle and into the net to make it 3-0.

Ayane probably should have got on the scoresheet herself just before the break. After bursting into the box, she struck a powerful, low shot towards goal but unfortunately Davies was there to thwart her effort with a smart stop.

It was obvious that we were eager for more goals after the break as well. With the team clearly brimming with confidence, Davison decided to let fly from 25 yards and her brilliant strike deceived Davies and extended our lead to four in the 58th minute.

Sulola, 18, came on for just her second competitive appearance in the 64th minute and, within a minute of entering the field, got her first senior goal after showing real strength and desire to bundle herself through a sea of bodies and then fire the ball into the back of the net.

Barnsley pushed forward late on in an attempt to pull a goal back and have something to show for their brave performance, but we held firm and professionally saw the game out to progress to the fifth round.

The focus will now switch back to the league, with a big game against Bristol City in the WSL coming up next Sunday.

Coach's view

At full-time Head Coach Karen Hills said: "I thought we worked exceptionally hard and it was a professional performance with five goals, a clean sheet and we're into the next round so we're really pleased with it. We have some fantastic players here but we can only pick 11 and they've all been working so hard in training so today was an opportunity for us to give some of the players a chance to show what they can do. I thought they all did very well and I'm really proud of them all. Elisha (Sulola) came on and she's been excellent this season in the Development Squad. She's been training with us and showed today that she can fit into the midfield well. She is young, enthusiastic and has the desire to do well and I couldn't be more pleased to see her score today and you could see from the reaction just how happy all the girls were for her." 

Match data

Goals: Spurs - Dean 20, 27 (pen), Worm 25, Davison 58, Sulola 65.

Yellow card: Barnsley - Turner 24.

Referee: Robert Whitton.

Venue: The Hive, London.

Weather: Cloudy, 10 degrees.

Attendance: 621.