The 2009 FA Women's Cup Final was the 39th final of the

FA Women's Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...

, England's primary

cup competition A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for women's football teams. It was the 16th final to be held under the direct control of

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

(FA). The final was contested between

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Pride Park Stadium Pride Park Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Derby, England, that is the home ground of English Football League club Derby County. With a capacity of 33,597, it is the 16th-largest football ground in England and the 20th-largest stad ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

on 4 May 2009. Arsenal won the game 2–1 to secure their fourth successive FA Cup triumph and their tenth in total. The match was attended by a crowd of 23,291.

Match

Summary

Arsenal, managed by

Vic Akers Victor David Akers, OBE (born 24 August 1946) is a football manager and former player who was most recently the assistant manager at Boreham Wood. Akers played as a left back. He was also manager of Arsenal Ladies winning numerous trophies wit ...

, reached their fourth FA Women's Cup final in succession after a 3–1 victory against Everton in the semi-finals, while Premier League Northern Division side Sunderland, managed by Mick Mulhern, reached their first ever final in the competition after beating

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

3–0 at the

Stadium of Light The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England, and the eighth and current home to Sunderland A.F.C. With space for 49,000 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. ...

, becoming the first team from outside the top flight to do so since

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. Arsenal, who came into the game as favourites, dominated the vast majority of the match, with

Gemma Davison Gemma Suzanne Davison (born 17 April 1987) is an English footballer who plays as a winger. She has previously played for Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Reading whom she joined from Chelsea in 2018. After joining Arsenal at youth team level f ...

and

Kim Little Kim Alison Little (born 29 June 1990) is a Scottish footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains Arsenal of the English FA WSL. Before her retirement from international duty in 2021, Little was vice-captain of the Scotland women's nat ...

creating several chances in the opening minutes. Sunderland created their first half chance as Sophie Williams chased a long ball down the left and crossed, but

Niamh Fahey Niamh Fahey (born 13 October 1987) is an Irish footballer who plays as a defender or midfielder for Liverpool in the Women's Super League and the Republic of Ireland women's national football team. She has previously played for Chelsea. Before ...

's challenge was enough to prevent

Jordan Nobbs Jordan Nobbs (born 8 December 1992) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays for Women's Super League club Aston Villa W.F.C., Aston Villa and the England women's national football team, England women's national tea ...

getting in a clean shot on goal. Arsenal hit back with Little striking over from distance and Davison drawing a save from Sunderland goalkeeper Helen Alderson after cutting in from the left. An angled shot from

Suzanne Grant Suzanne Winters (née Grant) (born 17 April 1984) is a former Scottish association football, footballer, who played as Forward (association football), striker. She made 104 appearances for the Scotland women's national football team, Scotland na ...

slid underneath Alderson, but

Lucy Bronze Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze (born 28 October 1991), known as Lucy Bronze, is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Barcelona and the England national team. She has previously played for Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool, Lyon a ...

managed to prevent

Rachel Yankey Rachel Aba Yankey, OBE (born 1 November 1979) is an English former footballer who played for the England national team. She played as a left winger or forward. She left Arsenal after 13 years in December 2016 at the end of her contract. She is ...

from scoring with a last-ditch clearance. Arsenal took the lead just after the half hour, when Alderson failed to hold Davison's shot and

Katie Chapman Katie Sarah Chapman (born 15 June 1982) is an English former footballer who last played for English FA WSL club Chelsea Ladies and was a member of the England women's national team. She primarily played as a central midfielder, although she wa ...

followed up to score from the rebound. The Gunners had a chance to double their lead two minutes ahead of the break, when Little slotted a good ball through to Grant, but her shot went wide of the far post. Arsenal had most of the possession in the second half, but their second goal came in injury time, when Chapman chipped the ball into the path of Little, who got round Alderson before tucking the ball into the empty net.

Kelly McDougall Kelly Marie McDougall (born 22 January 1984) is an English former international footballer. She played in midfield for Everton Ladies and Sunderland Women. She also works at Bothal Primary School, as a PE teacher. Club career McDougall joine ...

pulled one back for Sunderland in the seventh minute of stoppage time, whose length was dictated by Sophie Williams having to receive more than five minutes of treatment after suffering a seizure.

Details

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FA Women's Cup

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2008–09 in English women's football FA Women's Cup Final, 2009 FA Women's Cup Final