SSFC Women knocked out of County Cup by dominant Durham Cestria

South Shields Women’s hopes of reaching the DCFA Women’s Challenge Cup Final were extinguished by a dominant Durham Cestria side on Sunday.

Taking to Ford Hub as the lasses’ alternative home venue, it was in fact the Mariners who made the brighter start but the goals fell the visitors' way, who quickly took the game away from them.

Grace Mackie scored within 15 minutes before Grace Monkhouse launched a screamer past Anna Yeakey in the 32nd minute.

Emily Hutchinson would make things worse for Shields when she netted just before the break, while Grace Forster completed the rout 16 minutes before full-time.

Despite forcing Yas Davies into a comfortable save 90 seconds into the game, the opening spell was quite scrappy and the game just needed to settle down one way or another.

Mackie took advantage of that fact when she was threaded through one-on-one and beat Yeakey, with the Cestria player slotting it into the far-left corner.

Monkhouse stunned supporters with her rocket from far out which slammed off the crossbar before settling in the back of the net.

Madison Bouggess almost got a shot off, from an offensive standpoint, but some excellent thinking by Mia Gibbon stopped the South Shields FC Women’s International Academy forward in her tracks.

A looping delivery just a few minutes before the interval brought chaos into the six-yard box and Hutchinson was on hand to guide it into the goal for the visitors’ third of the match.

Things settled down for the most part after the break, though Shields continued to weather the proverbial storm.

It took 29 minutes following the restart for Cestria to find their fourth, and final, goal of the game - Forster was responsible for capitalising on a moment of madness in Shields’ penalty box.

Yeakey impressed with a number of excellent stretching saves to keep the scoreline down, while substitute goalkeeper Alena Miller remained composed when she came on for the final 10 minutes.

Although the lasses have exited the County Cup at the Semi-Final stage for the second year running, there can no doubt be some positives to take from a brave display against stronger opposition.

It is Thornaby FC Women on the road next for Shields on Sunday, February 22nd, with full match details to be confirmed later this week.

South Shields Women: Yeakey (Miller 79’), May (Green 31’), Killeen, Wootten, McMahon, Campbell, Hoot (McDonald 45+2’), Rodriguez (Robinson 79’), Bouggess, Hill, Raffel.

Unused substitutes: None.

Durham Cestria: Davies, Mackie, Bell, Gibbon, Monkhouse (Morran 46’), Hutchinson (Atkinson 60'), Dale, Ward (Prested 85’), Sinclair (Noble 53’), Stokes, Mathias (Forster 65’).

Unused substitutes: None.

Goals: Mackie (15’), Monkhouse (32’), Hutchinson (42’), Forster (74’).

Image credit: Craig McNair (@ideventphoto).