Millwall Lionesses come so close – twice – to dumping Gillingham out of FA Cup

BY KAI BENNETT

Millwall Lionesses suffered FA Cup penalty heartbreak on Sunday as they were knocked out by Gillingham.

The Lionesses scored early in extra time and their opponents, who are in the National League South, only levelled with 10 seconds of the tie remaining.

Gillingham missed their first spot-kick but went through 5-4 with their keeper Cara Davies pulling off two excellent saves from Lucy Jellett and Poppy Payne.

Millwall started well and nullified the visitors in the opening stages but halfway through the first-half Gillingham took the lead with an effort from long range from Mel Espinosa.

That failed to dampen the spirits of the Lionesses and Jade Keogh’s corner went all the way in before half-time.

The second half was dominated by Millwall but the Gills keeper made some good saves to deny them a winner in normal time.

The Lionesses took the lead in extra-time when Lauren Williams won possession high up the pitch, teeing up Jellett to finish brilliantly.

Serene Hand made some big stops in the last 10 minutes before Gillingham equalised. The Kent club will head to Dulwich Hamlet in round two.

Millwall manager Jack Wheeler said: “I’m really pleased with how we did and to concede with the last kick in extra-time, those fine margins make the biggest difference. But we learn and we move on. I’m really pleased with the team and how they stuck together really as staff and as players.

“I’m really proud of the girls. We stuck to the game plan really well and they left everything out on the pitch. All we asked them to do at the start of the game was to try and work as hard as they possibly could and take the game to Gillingham.

“We’ve watched them this week so we knew the strengths and weaknesses and how we wanted to set up and we dealt with that accordingly.”

Millwall are top of the London & South East Regional League.

They head to Maidstone in the Kent Cup last eight on Sunday.

Wheeler said: “I’m making sure we continue this momentum that we’ve got, in terms of good positive performances. If we can do that I would back my team against anyone in this league and anyone in the league above.

“Everyone should be really proud of themselves for what they did on Sunday.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD