As smoke wafted across the pitch from the makeshift burger stand on the edge of the muddied field on Tinsley Lane, fans joked of postponement – anything to keep the joy of this tie alive because, almost eight years after Crawley Town, then non-league, went on a wonderful FA Cup run that saw them reach Old Trafford – falling only to a Wes Brown header – now it was the turn of the town’s biggest women’s team, Crawley Wasps, to bask in the spotlight.

In the shadow of Gatwick and with a population of just over 100,000, Crawley is not exactly a town known as a footballing behemoth. On Sunday, however, attentions were on Sussex as it played host to two of the tastiest ties of the women’s FA Cup fourth round. And, on a day when half of the 16 ties fell foul of frozen and waterlogged pitches, even more eyes were focused on events down south.

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Wasps, one of four National League sides still left in the competition, had been handed a mouthwatering draw at home to the 14-times winners Arsenal while Hope Powell came up against Casey Stoney, to whom she handed the England captaincy in 2012, as Manchester United travelled to Crawley to face Brighton, who play home games there, 22 miles north of the Amex.

United passed the fourth of five tests against Women’s Super League opposition in the earlier kick-off, before their Continental Cup semi-final match up with Arsenal on Thursday night, with the former Gunners player Lauren James the difference. The gifted 17-year-old, on as a substitute at half time for Charlie Devlin, took only five minutes to give the visiting side the lead as Jess Sigsworth’s ball from the right allowed her to side-foot in from the edge of the box. Siobhan Chamberlain, often with so little to do between the posts, then showed why, despite playing in the Championship, she is not out of contention for a spot in Phil Neville’s England squad as she dived low to her right to keep out a Danni Buet penalty after Kayleigh Green was cleared out by Amy Turner in the box.

With 90 minutes on the clock James then went on a mazy run down the right, muscling off two the benign challenges before sweeping past Sophie Harris to seal the 2-0 win. But this day belonged to Wasps.

The muddy field down Tinsley Lane where Oakfield FC men play was packed with an impressive 1,550 sell-out crowd, far outnumbering the 764 in the 6,134-seater up the road with the back-to-back matches taking place a 10-minute drive apart. But the player-led decision to turn down the offer of Crawley Town for use of their turf made sense – Town’s manager Gabriele Cioffi was in the stands to support the neighbouring side.

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The atmosphere was ample reward. The quaint ground with its two tiny stands holding no more than 60 people each was heaving. Lines of people hugged the railings round the perimeter waving yellow and black paper flags. Wasps are one of a dwindling number of sides not affiliated to a men’s club and it might have been expected that the scoreline would be painful.

Instead the 4-0 victory flattered Arsenal. Crippled by injury and taking the opportunity to rest players when facing a team 33 places below them, the Gunners lacked their customary free-flowing swagger. Crawley, looking to go one better than the town’s men’s team, and having beaten QPR, Chichester and Coventry after navigating two qualifiers just to make it here, did not just make up the numbers. They were tough in the tackle and crisp in passing when they could be.

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“I’m immensely proud of the performance of the ladies today,” their manager, Paul Walker, said. “They came up against a top side in Arsenal but I’d be very surprised if anyone thought there was four levels of difference in those squads.”

For Arsenal, it was about getting the job done before Thursday’s Continental Cup semi-final against Manchester United. And with their top scorer, Vivianne Miedema, rested, it was the captain, Kim Little, who took a hold of the game and put the visitors ahead on 20 minutes, shifting into space before shooting low past Frankie Gibbs. Then, on the stroke of half-time, the 16-year-old Ruby Grant fired into the roof of the net to double the lead. Little, Katie McCabe and Danielle van de Donk were substituted and the young Gunners went to work. Grant was their outlet and she picked up a through ball and sent it in to the bottom corner for her second before securing a hat-trick with five minutes remaining.

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“1,550 people came today, we sold out of tickets,” said Walker. “That’s a WSL-level crowd and it shows the excitement that has been generated across the town and I hope everyone goes away thinking we put on a spectacle today. I don’t think this will be a one-off. This club is going from strength to strength.”