By Huzaifa Yousafzai from St Mary’s Stadium
AMANADA Ilestadt’s 92nd minute winner for Arsenal left a record-breaking St Marys’ crowd stunned as Southampton Women exited the FA Womens’ League Cup to the top-flight Gunners.
A new Womens record crowd of 13,438 saw Molly Pike’s audacious chip from the edge of the box give Saints the lead two minutes into the second half.
The Gunners replied almost immediately as a misplaced pass from Lina Hurtig landed at the feet of fellow Scandinavian Frida Maanum, who smashed the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
With the score stranded at a goal apiece, the game looked set to go to penalties before Frida Maanum delivered an in-swinging corner that was met by a rising Amanda Ilestedt and flicked towards the back post and past Kayla Rendell.
“If it becomes like this where it’s a really good event as well as being good for the fans that’s even better” said Arsenal Manager Jonas Eidvall as he spoke in a post-match press conference.
The Swedish manager continued to speak about how impressive the game was and how much the record-breaking crowd showed improvement in Women’s football in the country.
“I mean today I think you can compare it to a lot of the games in the Champions league. Here I think from an attendance perspective this game is probably making top five maybe top three compared to the Champions’ league group stage. I mean it shows the growth of women’s football in England.”
Former Arsenal player and now Saints manager, Marieanne Spacey-Cale spoke about how crucial the home support was for her side and the importance that it will have moving forward into the season.
Spacey-Cale said; “The support was fantastic. Over 13,000 tonight and Arsenal is going to be a big draw, isn’t it?
“But the fans did come out and they supported us throughout the whole 90 or 100 minutes in the end it, I think.
“That’s something we have been building on and credit to the club you know the process they’ve gone through over the last few weeks to get that number in. That’s the support we need week in week out and to continue building on them.”
The Southampton boss then spoke about how the professionalism of more Women’s team is helping to close the gap between the elite sides in the Women’s Super League and the those beneath them.
“Yeah, now there are teams in the championship that can push teams in the in the WSL and I think that the gap is closing and that’s because of a bit more professional teams. Bit more teams being professional means the standards are getting higher. I think we’ve just got to look at how do we make sure that we continue to grow the game to allow teams that are invested into it to be able to play at the highest level that they can.”
However, despite the special occasion, Southampton now sit 3rd in the FA League Cup Group D on 4 points as Arsenal move into top spot on six points alongside north London rivals Spurs. On the other hand, the Saints still remain in the running for promotion to the WSL and performances like tonight proves that they are capable of competing with England’s elite.
