Super League giants Manchester City Women visited Theobalds Lane on Sunday and a record crowd was in attendance

Karen Hills was positive after Spurs Ladies’ 3-0 loss at home to Manchester City Women in the FA Cup fifth-round on Sunday.

Tottenham Hotspur Ladies were big underdogs for the tie, but did themselves proud with a spirited display.

A crowd of 1,158 turned up at Cheshunt FC’s Theobalds Lane, which smashed the previous best attendance recorded for a Spurs Ladies game of 650.

City, as expected, were too powerful for the FA Women’s Championship side and goals by Steph Houghton, Lauren Hemp and Gemma Bonner sent the Super League outfit through, but the Lilywhites did see a late Angela Addison spot-kick saved.

Spurs boss Hills said: “I thought we held our own and we can come away with a lot of positives. We definitely could have caused an upset, and if the penalty had gone in, who knows.

“I’m really pleased for the girls and that’s where we want to be, we want to be playing top opposition week in, week out.

“So, credit to our girls, I thought we defended immensely during that first period and restricted City to very few chances.

“The girls really put our game plan into action, but we knew set pieces would be a problem and it was an excellent finish for the goal from the England captain.”

Hills continued: “What the girls have done was outstanding and they deserve a lot of credit and we’re just thankful to all the supporters for coming out.

“We’ve had a really good crowd and hopefully we’ve made everyone proud because we’ve come on a big journey and this is another step to where we want to go.”

Captain Jenna Schillaci was equally effusive in her praise of how her team-mates had got on against one of the best teams in the world.

She said: “We’re really pleased with the performance, despite the scoreline. We had a game plan and I thought we stuck to it really well.

“It was unfortunate to give the set pieces away, but they are quality players and we knew if we did give them chances then they would probably take them.

“We always believe in ourselves and we knew our qualities. At half-time the coaches wanted us to press more and we came out all guns blazing and we did put them under pressure and create some chances so we’re happy with that performance.”

After this season’s FA Cup adventure is over, Tottenham now switch their focus back to the FA Women’s Championship.

Spurs are in action this evening (Wednesday) at home to Leicester City Women, eager to increase their lead at the summit in what will be their last match until March 12 – a break of three weeks.