A first-half comeback was enough to seal a Semi-Final spot in the Sussex Women’s Challenge Cup for Worthing on Sunday afternoon.

Last year’s finalists, Newhaven, had initially taken the lead but Worthing fought straight back with two goals of their own to book their place in the final four.

Worthing started the game with confidence controlling the ball well with Newhaven standing strong defensively.

10 minutes in, Worthing almost had an early opener when Tierney Scott put a lovely ball across goal into the path of Lauren Amerena but she fired over.

Just over five minutes later though Worthing were stunned when they failed to close down Newhaven’s Charlie Carter who unleashed from range and lobbed Libby Kingshott to take the lead.

It sprung some more life into Worthing though who started to attack with a bit more purpose and it wasn’t long before they had the equaliser. Danielle Rowe drove into the box and curled a lovely finish low, into the bottom corner, with the outside of her foot.

On the half-hour mark, back-to-back free-kicks caused problems for Newhaven, firstly Georgia Tibble forcing a strong stop from Ell Fenner. This was shortly followed by another which was curled to the far post and headed just wide by Danielle Lane.

But a few minutes later, Worthing had the important second goal when centre-back Izzy Franklin travelled forward with the ball, and unchallenged, she decided to strike from distance, rifling one beautifully into the top corner.

The second-half continued perhaps as expected with Worthing dictating the play and seeing most of the ball.

It was a strong display defensively from Newhaven who, particularly in the second-half, were conceding very few chances.

Just before the hour mark Worthing found the half’s first real chance with Scott in acres of space down the right, firing into the side netting.

Not long after, Fenner produced an exceptional stop getting down low to deny Worthing a third.

The remainder of the half, however, proved to be rather uneventful with Worthing pushing for the third goal to put them out of sight, but the strong Newhaven defence were standing firm.

In the end, Franklin’s first-half strike proved to be the decider as Worthing join Lewes, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Saltdean United in the final four.

(A selection of photographs can be found on Facebook - courtesy of Kyle Hemsley Photography)
SUSSEX WOMEN’S CHALLENGE CUP QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS

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