MK Dons Vitality Women’s FA Cup adventure ended in a spirited defeat to Barclays Women’s Championship side, Charlton Athletic as the Dons fell 3-1 to the hosts.
Charlton started strongly and looked to dominate MK Dons, which led to a number of early chances that resulted in key saves from Chloe Sanson. After twenty-five minutes Charlton pressure was awarded a penalty kick for handball. Simpkins stepped up to take the spot kick but was brilliantly saved by Samson as she dived low to her right.
After the penalty save the Dons managed to get more into the game and confidence started to grow within the squad.
But that confidence was soon short-lived when in the thirty-fourth minute Charlton once again had the chance to take the lead from the spot after Addison was brought down in the area.
1-0 Charlton as Melissa Johnson converted the spot kick as Sanson dived the wrong way.
MK dons managed to regroup and started brightly to the second half, pressuring the Charlton back line as Mollie Coupar and Nicole Pepper lead the MK press.
In the sixty-sixth minute, Dons’ hard work was rewarded as Pepper stole the ball from the Charlton defence and picked out a pass to Coupar as she rushed towards goal and slotted the ball passed the Charlton keeper to make it 1-1
Going into the last twenty minutes of the game. Both teams had several chances that could have secured the win. But as the clock ticked over 90 minutes the fourth official raised the board for six minutes of extra time.
Charlton then went on to score two late goals deep into added time to secure their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
MK Dons: Sansom (C), Warren, Puddick, Biggadike (Nixon 70), Rush, Pepper, Miles, Gould (Miceli 70), Coupar, Mitchell (McLean 60), Newman
Subs: Guy, Davies, Bennett, Samuels, Hughes
Goals: Coupar 66
Charlton Athletic: Rogers, N’Dow, Johnson, Simpkins (C), Ayisi, Addison, Skeels, Rutherford (Bruton 55), Roe, Henson, Ross
Subs: Gray, Follis, Bashford, O’Rourke
Goals: Johnson 34,90+6 N’Dow 90+3
Attendance 303