Saints finished sixth place in their inaugrual season in the Women’s Championship, concluding it with an unfortunate 1-0 loss to Sheffield United at St Mary’s.

Courtney Sweetman-Kirk scored for the fifth consecutive game to sink the Saints in a game where an offside goal from Ella Pusey should have made the difference.

Saints dominated the run of play in the first half and almost scored in the 20th minute as Katie Wilkinson crossed the ball to an unmarked Pusey, but her first time volley was palmed away well.

Pusey had the ball in the net in stoppage time before her goal was ruled out for an offside, with Alice Griffiths waiting far too long to play her in behind in a three-on-one counter attack.

Sheffield started the second half fast and carved out a one-on-one chance in the 54th minute, but Kayla Rendell rushed out and smothered the ball with an acrobatic save to keep the game goalless.

Despite the keeper’s heroics, the deadlock was eventually broken by Sweetman-Kirk - her header towards goal was saved by Rendell and cleared off of the line but she was there to tap the rebound in.

Substitute Lexi Lloyd-Smith made an immediate impact as her short passes with Beth Lumsden put her in space inside the penalty box - she was shouldered off the ball before she could shoot though.

Milly Mott put her body on the line to prevent a second from being scored, getting taken out by her own captain Rosie Parnell as she cleared the ball away.

Saints: Rendell, Morris, Mott, Kendall, Parnell, Pusey (Lloyd-Smith, 72), Pharoah (Wynne, 81), Griffiths (Peplow, 59), Wilkinson (Lumsden, 59), Collett, Peake

Unused subs: Rafferty, Freeland, Williams, Ward, Howard

Sheffield: Stenson, Newsham, Barker, Sweetman-Kirk, Cusack, Rayner, Paul, Enderby (Wilcock, 81), Haywood (Lord-Mears, 61), Brown, Graham

Unused subs: Davies, Riglar, Muir, Docherty, Francis-Jones, Clarke

Booked: Cusack