A TRIP to Stoke City in the Fourth Round of the Women’s FA Cup was the reward for Coventry City Ladies after they beat Oxford United to progress in the competition.
The Sky Blues made the trip to Abingdon on Sunday looking to extend their winning streak to 13 matches in all competitions.
The visitors got off to the best possible start when Destiney Toussaint stabbed the ball home from close range with just 30 seconds on the clock.
City continued to press with Dermody firing narrowly wide and Amber Hughes was denied after being put clean through on goal.
A second goal came on 15 minutes when Amber Hughes squared the ball to Toussaint in the area and she bagged her brace to put the Sky Blues in control.
Any hopes of Toussaint bagging her hat-trick came to an abrupt end on 20 minutes when she was dismissed for lashing out at an opponent but Oxford failed to make the most of their numerical advantage.
The hosts enjoyed a bright spell after the break but neither Kayleigh Mines or Katherine Nutman could find a way past Sue Wood in the City goal and when she was beaten skipper Natasha Lynch was on-hand to make last ditch clearance off the line.
And 18 minutes from the visitors wrapped up the win after Dermody controlled the ball well before firing home a third and final goal.
“It was a fantastic team performance.” said City ladies boss Craig Nicholls. “We started really brightly and we executed our game plan really well.
“The sending off changed things and it took 10 mins for us to adjust and reorganise. We spoke at half time about digging in and being disciplined and we were superb.”
“We had great individual performances but more importantly we had one great team performance which is what matters. We were disappointed with comments about it being a warm up game for Oxford but FA cup games are never warm up games.”
Midfielder, and scorer of the third goal, Dermody, added: “It was a quality team performance. Every single player battled until the end and even with ten players we still managed to show our quality in the final third.
“I’m glad to get on the scoresheet again and more importantly get in to the draw for the next round!”
