Lewes Women go out of FA Cup to Manchester United in front of record-breaking crowd

2,801 fans came out today to cheer on The Rooks as they took on WSL title chasers Manchester United. The attendance set an all-time record for the ground on what was a historic occasion.

The home fans truly made a difference in this game with the noise from the crowd carrying the team on the pitch onwards.

It didn’t start well for the hosts though after a Rhian Cleverly own goal put the Red Devils ahead. An unfortunate one as she did well to get ahead of Alessia Russo who surely would have scored anyway.

For the rest of the second half Lewes did incredibly well and kept United surprisingly quiet. Going into the break at 1-0 there was certainly a lot of hope around the ground that Lewes could pull something off.

As the second half got underway the quality of the away side really showed as Sophie Whitehouse was called into action on multiple occasions pulling off some brilliant saves to deny Martha Thomas and Russo.

The visitors managed to double their lead 68 minutes in. Boe Risa’s towering header on the end of a Ona Batlle cross gave Whitehouse no chance.

Four minutes later Lewes were given some hope. A world class curling effort from Emily Kraft catching Mary Earps off guard and giving the hosts all the motivation they needed to try and get back into the game.

The Dripping Pan truly erupted as the ball hit the back of the net with the feeling around the ground being that Lewes might just be able to do it.

Unfortunately, despite constant pressure from the hosts, it wasn’t meant to be. Nikita Parris getting United’s third goal in the 89th minute.

Despite the result Lewes showed plenty of quality in this game taking the Red Devils to their absolute limit.

It wasn’t to be though as Lewes’ dream FA Cup run comes to an end.