Words Ben Edwards | Pictures Maisy Green

The Robins bowed out of the Alliance Design and Print Plate at the quarter-final stage, suffering a 5-0 defeat to North West Women’s Regional League Division One Central leaders FC St Helens Women at Partington Sports Village.

After just four minutes the visitors opened the scoring. Olivia Kaleta’s loose pass was intercepted by a St Helens player on the right flank, who played a ball across the box for Sophie Griffiths to fire home.

Kaleta made a couple of smart stops as St Helens looked to double their advantage with efforts from the edge of the penalty area, though they did find their second after 27 minutes. Ava McKenny got the wrong side of Katie Locke and skipped past the challenge of Nat Lowe before producing a powerful finish at the near post.

St Helens had a great chance to make it three, put fired comfortably over from inside the penalty area. Moments later, a rare Alty chance saw Georgia McKnight force Meg Law into a good save down to her right.

Daryll Abrahams set his side up in a 5-3-2 shape, looking to nullify the threat of St Helens, though found more joy when switching to 4-4-2 after going two behind.

Millie Kullu was introduced as a left winger and was the brightest spark for the Robins. She switched the ball excellently to McKnight who fed in Emily Rutter, but the striker couldn’t get a clean connection on her shot which trickled through to Law.

Three quick fire goals after the break put St Helen’s out of sight. Brianna Morrison’s pass to Locke was cut out by Ash Beard, who did it all on her own, driving into the D and producing an excellent finish.

Beard played a cute through ball to Liv Hussey on the bi-line, who cut the ball back to substitute Tess Littler for a tap in to the bottom left corner.

The fifth came from a 25-yard free kick which struck the crossbar, with St Helens reacting quickest and to head home the rebound.

A contrast from the first team, the Elite U18s were on the right side of a dominant score line, winning 6-0 away from home against Sandbach United U18 Hawk.

For the second week in a row, Tia Unwin scored twice having only recently made the step up from the junior setup. Megan Hunt, Roxie Chalmers, Mae Winchcombe and Lottie Whitehead also found the back of the net at Sandbach Community Football Centre.