Everton progress after beating United 7-0
Oxford United Ladies were heavily beaten by Premier League side Everton in this afternoon's FA Women's Cup fifth round tie at the Kassam Stadium but there were still plenty of positives that United could take from their performance. United had some good passages of possession and before conceding looked the better side.Fielding the same starting line-up that had beaten Newcastle United 2-1 in the previous round, United started brightly and had all the best moves in the first 10 minutes, creating a couple of half chances. The pick of them saw leading scorer Lauren Allison heading over from a pin-point Katie Stanley cross.
It all started to go wrong in the 10th minute from Everton's first corner. The ball was missed by the first defender and Hannah Cox could only palm away the ball from under the crossbar. The loose ball fell kindly for Brooke Chaplen, who smashed it into the net from 10 yards.
Five minutes later and the side that is three divisions above Oxford doubled their lead as some hesitant defending allowed Toni Duggan the opportunity to run clear and slot the ball past Cox. With United's heads dropping it took just two minutes before Everton increased their lead further. Nikita Parris surged down the right wing and cut the ball inside to the unmarked Michelle Hannigan, who had the simple task of smashing the ball into the goal.
United were rocking from conceding three goals in a seven-minute spell and the visitors continued to plough forwards looking for further goals. Chaplen and Duggan both had shots go narrowly wide and on 32 the U's had a let off when Parris got clean through and with just Cox to beat her shot cannoned off the post. Cox then tipped a long-range shot onto the bar in the follow-up play. Cox made another good save to deny Parris just before the break but Everton weren't to be denied their fourth before the break and a minute before half-time Duggan latched onto a poor back pass and took the ball round Cox before slotting home to give the visitors an unassailable half-time lead.
In the second period United held out for almost 20 minutes before Everton again breached the defence. Cox again made an excellent one-handed save to keep out Parris but the ball wasn't cleared and Michelle Hinnigan shot home through a crowd of players to make it 5-0. Three minutes later another great save from Cox denied Duggan her hat-trick after Everton captain Jill Scott had teed her up. The respite lasted just four minutes though as Duggan was unmarked at the back post to dink the ball home with United players looking in vain for an offside flag.
With 10 minutes remaining Everton grabbed their seventh as Parris got goalside of the defence to get the goal that she deserved, although the scoreline was rather harsh on a United side that had battled gamely.
United: Cox, Meade, Mobbs (Anderson), Osborne-Ricketts, Chivers, Allison, Beaver, Stanley, Caswell, Pickett, Pinker (Coles)
Attendance: 918