Huddersfield Town Ladies made a controversial exit 1-0 to Derby County in the first round of the SSE Women’s FA Cup at the Stafflex Arena.

The game ended with a twist at Storthes Hall, when Town’s Kate Mallin thought she had scored the equalising goal in the 88th minute, only for the referee to rule that the ball had not crossed the line.

The Town bench and supporters were left incensed as they felt the ball had clearly crossed the line.

The defeat dumps Town out of the FA Cup with the possibility of a potential money-spinning second round tie taken away.

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Town boss Ash Vickers said: “It was definitely a goal, how it hasn’t been given I don’t know.

“I think if we had got that goal we might have gone on to win the game as we then would have had the momentum.

“The goal would have put us level and got us back in the game, however I did think we had other chances to win the game.”

On the possibility of getting goal-line technology into the women’s game Vickers said: “I think they have to get it into the men’s Championship first before it comes to us.

“We just would like a linesman to keep up with play first of all.”

However, Vickers was pleased with a strong team performance and said: “We set up a bit differently and in the first half we were excellent.

“The first half we kept the ball well and drew them in, that made it easier to get in behind their back line. We then look to use our pace in those situations.

“In the second half we couldn’t get going, we didn’t get an early goal and that is when the frustration went in.”

It was Natalie Reay who scored the only goal of the game for Derby on the 60th minute mark.

“Derby had one chance and scored from a deflected goal that was unfortunate,” added Vickers.

“We got caught for their goal, we should have snuffed it out but it unfortunately deflected off Vicky Abbott and went in.”

Town’s next game is a tricky away trip to Tranmere Rovers on Saturday (1pm), in the quarter-finals of the FAWPL League Plate Cup.

“We have a tough game next week, and as they are a league below us they will want to cause an upset and we can’t let that happen,” said Vickers.