City Women make FA Cup progress with comfortable Pen Mill win

Bath City Women eased into the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round with a 3-0 success at Pen Mill Ladies this afternoon.

City took the lead in the 9th minute after sustained pressure when Brooke Steventon-Smith’s throw was headed on by Rosie Burridge to Jess Evans, whose effort deflected off Charlotte Lewis and wrong-footed keeper Alisha Barker. Sharna Keay denied City a second minutes later by clearing Burridge’s effort off the line but the dominance continued and was rewarded with a second just before the break. Evans played inside to Sophie Storey and her perfectly weighted through ball saw Burridge ease past the defence before nonchalantly side-foot past the exposed Barker.

The striker miscued Evans’ cross wide five minutes after the restart when she should have tested Barker, but a third arrived on 57 minutes. Evans looped the ball inside to Storey who controlled well before expertly lashing over Barker into the far corner from 18 yards. Abby Gray headed Storey’s corner straight at Barker and the overworked keeper did enough to prevent Burridge in the dying stages when she poked Tanea Wright’s ball towards goal. Romans keeper Lucy Clay was barely called upon all afternoon and having survived a scare in the last round against Paulton, City found lower division opponents much more to their liking as their professionalism shone through to progress.