A goal from Ukrainian midfielder Vitaliia Budaieva was enough for Oxford United Women to beat Watford Women and ensure their passage into the third round of the Women's FA Cup at the MGroup Stadium on Sunday afternoon. United will face a home tie against tier four side Bristol Rovers in the next round, which will take place on Sunday 8 December. This is the first time that Rovers have reached this stage of the competition.
United had already won at Watford in the National League in October, but the side relegated from the WSL Championship last season are still strong opposition and, with Oxford coming into the game on the back of two defeats, it was important for the U's to get a result.
As expected, both sides started strongly, with most of the action occurring in the midfield areas. The blustery wind made for a cagey first half, with Zoe Barratt having one opportunity for Oxford but she shot over from outside the area. Watford forced United keeper Paris Sercombe into an early routine save from former U's player Flo Fyfe, and Sercombe had to be alert to make a save from Anna Filbey shortly before half-time.
In the 70th minute, United made the breakthrough when Budaieva received the ball on the byline and managed to beat Maria O'Sullivan to open the scoring.
Eight minutes later, the visitors were awarded a penalty for handball by Nic Gibson, for which the U's defender was shown a red card. Oxford were indebted to Sercombe who threw herself to her right to keep out Coral Haines' spot-kick with a superb save. The last action of the game was another save by Sercombe, who tipped aside Gemma Davison's drive to keep the clean sheet and ensure the U's are in the hat for the third round draw.
After the game, manager Sam Rose said: "I'm really pleased with the win. We needed a win, especially after the last two games. It was important that we put on a performance today and I thought we did. We played some good football until we went down to ten players, and we looked a lot more like us.
"There were some good passages of play from both teams and we maybe rode our luck a little bit at times. We've no league or cup game next week but we have something scheduled to keep the players ticking over. For now, we'll look forward to the third round. After that, we have Plymouth at home and that's us until the Christmas break."
UNITED: Sercombe, Gibson, Wiseman, Creaney, Barratt (Lindbaek 72), Poole, Sealey (King 72), Gotch, Oliver (Wellesley-Smith 51), Burridge, Budaieva (Richardson 87)
Unused sub: Trinder