Sammy Conroy was today announced as The SSE Women’s FA Cup Player of the Round after her headed double secured Sporting Club Albion a memorable 4-3 away win against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Sporting’s reward is a Sixth Round tie on April 2nd against Manchester City Women, a side containing a host of England’s Lionesses including team skipper Steph Houghton and World Cup star Lucy Bronze.
The award is a brand new initiative for The SSE Women’s FA Cup, rewarding exceptional performances in each round of the competition and recognising the talent in the women’s game. Earlier winners of the award are: Precious Hamilton of Long Eaton from Round 1; Leah Rawle from Tottenham from Round 2; Gemma Shepherd of Charlton from Round 3 and Yeovil’s Charlotte Haynes from the 4th Round.
Sporting started the brighter of the two sides, pressing Brighton high up the pitch and their approach quickly paid dividends. Conroy opening the scoring, rising highest in the Brighton box to powerfully head home a corner inside 10 minutes. Sporting’s excellent start continued and they added a second on 14 minutes through Summer Holmes before Abbi Cottam looked to have put the game to bed with Sporting’s third.
However after going 3-0 down inside the opening 20 minutes, Brighton’s response was impressive and they flooded forward, pulling a goal back before half time. After the restart it was Brighton who were in the ascendency and they netted their third goal before levelling the tie on 81 minutes.
However there was a further twist in the thrilling contest and it was Sporting who found an unlikely late winner. Conroy rising again to meet a free kick with an excellent glancing header that went in off the post, her second of the game and the decider in a superb match and Conroy is already looking forward to the big Sixth Round tie:
“It was a crazy game, I don’t think they expected us to press them so hard so early on and it took them by surprise. Obviously we then had to defend for most of the game so to come up with a winner late on was amazing. Playing Manchester City will be difficult but a great experience, we are going to go there and enjoy it”
Sporting Club Albion are now the lowest ranked team in the competition, in a quarter final draw that features six FA WSL1 sides including Arsenal Ladies, last year’s finalists Notts County Ladies and current holders Chelsea Ladies.
This award, which is voted for by a panel of women’s football experts including BBC Sport’s Jo Currie, Sport Magazine’s Sarah Shephard, women’s football expert Tony Leighton and the Offside Rule’s Lynsey Hooper, will continue round-by-round until the highly anticipated Final which takes place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 14 May and thanks to The FA’s partnership with SSE, all children will be able to attend for free. Adult tickets are priced at £15 and group bookings and charter standard discounts are also available.
Tickets for The Final are on sale now here or by calling 0844 826 2010.
You can read more about the FA Cup here.
Report courtesy of Synergy (on behalf of SSE) and The FA
