The two Barclays Women’s Super League teams locked horns at Meadow Park in the fifth round of the tournament with a place in the last-eight up for grabs.
In a hard fought encounter, Laia Aleixandri’s goal with just over 15 minutes remaining helped secure progress with extra-time looming.
It represented our first win away at the Gunners in three attempts and extended our fine winning streak to 10 straight matches in all competitions.
And the boss praised our mentality which helped book a place in the quarter-finals of the illustrious competition.
“Today, I think the game was probably a little bit more even. We had our good moments, they had theirs,” he explained.
“There’s lots for us to work on, but to come here in a cup competition is just fantastic to win, come away with a clean sheet – I thought the guys were magnificent.
“We were really determined not to give away anything.”
Having started at Meadow Park, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw was replaced by Mary Fowler on 62 minutes.
The boss revealed the Jamaica international has been suffering from a calf strain but explained her substitution was a mixture of precaution and also reshaping of his forward line.
He added: “Bunny is okay. She’s been nursing a bit of a calf strain.
“Fair play to her, she really wanted to play in this game today and put herself out there.
“We thought we might be able to get a bit a little bit more from her so it [her substitution] was a mixture really.
“I thought we could get a bit more energy down the middle and Lauren [Hemp] gives you that [and] Mary comes onto the pitch.
“I thought the other guys who came on as well, albeit at different moments, they had to get into the rhythm of the game really quickly.”
