Newark Town Ladies Alvin Sheldon on 8-1 defeat to higher-league Mansfield Town in County Cup second round

Newark Town Ladies gave Mansfield Town a scare in the County Cup second round on Sunday.

Step 6 Newark took the lead against their Step 5 opponents thanks to Kirsty Naismith and only a controversial offside decision denied them a second.

A classy Mansfield side scored three before half-time and ran out 8-1 winners as depleted Newark, with only one substitute, tired after the break.

“It wasn’t an 8-1 game, if that makes sense,” said Blues manager Alvin Sheldon.

“We went 1-0 up, then we scored a perfectly good goal which was chalked off by the assistant.

“The decision was staggering. It was unbelievably bad.

“We’re talking 10 yards, at least, that she was onside, but that’s just the way it goes.

“It was 3-1 at half-time and second half we basically ran out of legs.

“We only had one sub, which didn’t help, but full credit to Mansfield, they’re a very good team.

“We’re not expected to be beating teams at Step 5.

“We’ve only just entered Step 6 ourselves, so it’s a big jump in expectation to think we can compete at that level.

“We basically can’t yet, although if we did have a full squad out, I think it would have been a lot closer.”

Newark are looking for their first league points when they host Belper at the YMCA this Sunday (2pm).

The development team went top of their league, with Anne Smith on target in a 1-1 draw against Beeston.

Allie Johnson took the player-of-the-match award.