Football match abandoned by Penny's sweetheart (5)
I believe the answer is:
cutie
'penny's sweetheart' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'football match abandoned by' is the wordplay.
'football match' becomes 'cut' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'abandoned' means to remove the middle letters (middle letters abandon or vacate the word).
'by' becomes 'in reserve' (synonyms).
'inreserve' with its middle removed is 'ie'.
'cut'+'ie'='CUTIE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cutie that I've seen before include "Attractive girl" , "Attractive person or animal" , "an attractive thing" , "something pleasing" , "beauty" .)