Ipswich should be proud despite cup loss - Wearing

Laura Coombs celebrates Manchester City's second goal against Ipswich

Ipswich Town defender Megan Wearing says they should be proud of their performance despite losing 3-0 to Manchester City in the fourth round of the Women's FA Cup.

Town's attempt to bridge a two-division gap ended in failure against a City side featuring a number of internationals, and currently second in Women's Super League.

But the result was a big improvement on their meeting with the same opponents five years ago when they lost 10-0.

"It was a brilliant occasion, great experience, probably one of the best in my career to date," Wearing told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"We were under no illusion that we probably weren't going to come here and have a lot of the ball but we planned to be organised and I think we executed that pretty well.

"We were under a lot of pressure, (and) a few times in the game we just needed to slow it down a little bit.

"We had to use a little bit of the 'dark arts' but it had to be done and I think we managed the game well, controlled it well, took the sting out of it when we needed to. It was quite a wise performance from us."

Goals by Jill Roord, Laura Coombs and Vivianne Miedema at the Joie Stadium put three-times winners City into the draw for the last 16.

And given the strength of the home side, Wearing said Town should not spend too much time trying to analyse where they got it wrong in defence.

"The first goal took a deflection, which was disappointing because at 0-0 you're hoping you can keep it at that for a little while longer," she continued.

"The second one was a cross, we maybe could have done a little bit better, but there were a lot (of chances) we stopped earlier with stout defending and resilience.

"You've got to respect the quality that is on the pitch - they score a lot of goals in the WSL so you can't look too much into it."

Wearing paid tribute to the volume generated by Ipswich's travelling support.

The Scotland Under-19 international added: "Our fans are some of the best in the women's game. Even at the end, the noise they made, the game was done but they weren't silenced, you'd think we had more fans than City.

"They help us so much, they are well and truly the 12th man for us."

Ipswich can now focus on the Women's National League Southern Premier, having lost top spot at the weekend as a result of Hashtag United beating Plymouth Argyle 2-0.

Only the top team will win promotion to the second-tier Championship for next season.