Bethan Davies earns praise despite Huddersfield Town Women’s FA Cup journey coming to an end at Brighton

National League side Huddersfield Town Women were beaten 6-0 by their full-time opponents in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Their Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United of the Women’s Championship were also elimintaed, losing to Tottenham Hotspur in extra time.

Brighton progressed to the quarter-finals with three goals in each half.

First-half goals from Nora Heroum, Rianna Jarrett and an unfortunate own-goal from Town goalkeeper Bethan Davies plus second-half goals from Felicity Gibbons and a brace for Danique Kerkdijk, saw Hope Powell’s side progress.

Davies also denied Heroum a first-half brace by saving her penalty.

After the game, manager Wimpenny had plenty of praise for his goalkeeper.

“If she didn’t save the chances that Brighton had, the scoreline would have been a lot heavier,” he said.

“Without her in goal it would have been a lot different, credit to her on some of the saves she made.

“The saves in the second half, she had to put her body on the line for, and I think she had a tremendous game.”

Town have had an on-off season due to repeated Covid-enforced curtailments, including one at the turn of the year which saw the third-tier season cancelled when they were top of the league and pushing for promotion.

Despite it still only being Wimpenny’s first full season as first-team manager, he led them to the top of their division, an unbeaten run of 14 games and only one loss prior to Sunday’s game.

Wimpenny matched the progress of the previous season’s team in reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup, but having played tougher opponents, he had nothing but praise for his team.

“Despite the result and not progressing further, I couldn’t fault their efforts whatsoever, they never gave up, they kept going and they showed a great character and desire through the game to not give in,” said the Town boss.

“For us, it is a great opportunity to learn, to build and to go again next season.”

He went on to say despite some tiring towards the end, he was proud of their efforts to stick their bodies on the line right to the very last minute.

The Seagulls will have to wait until September 29 to play in the next round with the final being at Wembley Stadium at the start of December.

Town’s campaign is now over and they will hope to return to action and pick up where they left off in a new season in the autumn.

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