With less than two minutes before penalties would decide the fate of St Johnstone WFC and Livingston WFC in their Sky Sports Cup match, Fern Newbigging struck to see Saints advance to the second round of the competition.
Saints opened the scoring after seven minutes. A corner was played in by Alix Moodie and, following a mele in the box, both Laura Steedman and Steffi Simson swung for the ball, with the latter getting the touch to take it past Shenai Gamrot.
Livingston very nearly equalised straight from the kick off. An audacious punt took a bounce as Ellie Mitchell went to gather the ball, taking it over her and, much to her obvious relief, the crossbar. It would be a minute later that Erin Burns got the Livingston equaliser. A through ball from Shannon Todd found Burns in space on the right and after taking a touch dispatched a powerful shot low past Mitchell.
The rest of the half passed without many real chances of note, as the sides battled each other all over the pitch, with the referee doing well to let the game flow where possible.
Livingston took the lead just a minute after the restart. Saints failed to clear a ball played forward by Stacy Calder, with Burns seeing her first attempt saved by Mitchell who could do nothing with Burns’ second attempt from close to the right-hand post.
Once again, the bulk of play took place between the two penalty boxes with more meaty tackles and more physical tussles than efforts on goal. There were changes to the Saints eleven with Hannah Clark, Megan Paterson and Jodie Ovens being introduced before Fern Newbigging and Elvie McLean later took to the pitch. Saints would also alter their shape to get back into the game.
Into the closing stages of the ninety and Megan Paterson thought she had taken it to extra time. A corner fell to Megan who stuck a fine half-volley from ten yards out. However, the referee blew as she struck the ball for a foul on the goalkeeper. The equaliser came with just four minutes remaining. A Hannah Clark cross from wide out on the left came back off the cross bar, and at the second time of asking, Elvie McLean scored from only a couple of yards out to take the match to extra time.
Once again, other than Elvie McLean floating a ball in that, like Hannah’s, came off the crossbar, extra time largely passed without real clear-cut chances. The boost from McLean’s goal and change of shape saw Saints enjoying more possession around the Livingston goal. With only a couple minutes left, Jodie Ovens won a free kick out on the left close to the corner flag.
Alix Moodie rolled the ball to Eilidh Begg who drove a low ball into the box where Fern Newbigging turned and rifled a shot home to spark wild scenes of celebration.
St Johnstone now face last season’s SWPL champions Glasgow City in the second round, October 1st at Riverside.
St Johnstone are at home once again next Sunday when they face, funnily enough, Livingston. Kick off at Riverside is 1pm, with admission £5 adults, £1 concessions and St Johnstone Season Ticket holders gaining free admission.
Saints Mitchell, MacIver (McLean), M.Steedman, Moodie, Brady, Simson (Newbigging), Begg, Malcolm (Ovens), McCafferty (Clark ), L.Steedman (Paterson ), Robertson
Livingston: Gamrot, Walker, Murray (Ross), Dodds (McAvoy), Todd, R.Murphy, Mason (Evans), Burns (Anderson), Calder (J.Murphy ), Clark, Mulligan (Davie )
Simson 7’, McLean 86’, Newbigging 118
Burns 9’, 46’
Match Report by Stuart Cowper