Goals from Tammy Waine, Rebecca Thompson-Agbro, Sara Tubby and Beth Kincaid sealed a straightforward victory for Michelle Lawrence’s side, who now await their opponents in the next round.
Worthing dominated the opening period and should have opened the scoring after just 30 seconds, however Rebecca Barrons header flew narrowly wide following a good delivery from Sara Tubby.
Worthing were not made to pay for that early miss however, as they broke the deadlock with just five minutes on the clock. With no one marking her from a corner, Waine found space and expertly headed Sam Mee’s perfect delivery past Becky Beale in the Littlehampton goal to the delight of her teammates.
After comfortably controlling the opening stages, the hosts were then pegged back in bizarre fashion on 15 minutes. Despite claims for a foul on Waine in her own box, play was allowed to continue and visiting forward Katie Burling had the simple task of clipping the ball over the onrushing Amy Coster to bring her side level.
Worthing continued to press after that setback and almost re-took the lead instantly, however Mee saw her close range piledriver brilliantly tipped onto the bar by Beale. The visiting goalkeeper’s heroics were short lived however, as the home side re-took the lead on 20 minutes. After earning another corner, Mee’s delivery was glanced in at the near post perfectly by Thompson-Agbro, who profited from more calamitous marking by the away side.
Gemma Worsofld and Lucy Somes then both saw close range efforts flash narrowly wide of the Littlehampton goal as Worthing continued to create chance after chance. Hannah Hewlett also had a glorious opportunity to make it three, however she headed straight at Beale from close range on the stroke of half time.
Manager Lawrence introduced Beth Kincaid and Chloe Lelliott ahead of the second half, as Worthing looked to find a crucial third goal and control proceedings. Barely three minutes into the second period, Worsfold had another fantastic chance to open her account for the afternoon, however she could only head wide.
Eventually, Worthing’s constant pressure would tell as they increased their lead on 57 minutes. Following a loose pass out of defence, Tubby was sent through by Worsfold and calmly caressed her effort into the bottom corner to put the game beyond Littlehampton. Following that goal, Lawrence again reshuffled her formation and re-introduced Hewlett alongside Beth McKellar, who deputised for Sara Hinton.
Kincaid was the next forward to miss a gilt edged chance on 75 minutes when she somehow struck the post with only Beale to beat. Littlehampton then had their shot stopper to thank once again as she brilliantly clawed Mee’s curling effort around her post at full stretch. Not to be deterred by her earlier miss, Kincaid added a fourth on 83 minutes when she beat the offside trap and delightfully clipped a precise effort past Beale into the bottom corner.
That was the final action of another ruthless home performance from Worthing, who secured safe passage to the quarter-final where they will face either Cray Valley or Bexhill United.
Following her contributions at both ends of the pitch, goal scorer Rebecca Thompson-Agbro was impressed with her teammate’s togetherness despite some difficult moments. She said “ The mood in the camp is great, we’re all really applying ourselves and it’s extremely important for us to continue working hard to get results. I think it’s always good to play teams outside of our league as it provides a learning experience. We have to take each game as it comes but it’s a very exciting time!.”
The Women’s next match sees them return to league action, when Herne Bay visit Woodside Road on Sunday 8th December for a 3pm kick off.
