A brace each for Daisy Bowen and Beth Jones and goals from Tash Allderidge, Steph Eadon and Annie Laight - marking her 100th appearance for The Pride - secured Pride’s place in the semi-final of the Derbyshire FA Women’s County Plate on Sunday.

The opening goal came on 10 minutes but although Pride were controlling the game, it took another 20 minutes for the second with a third shortly afterwards. Four second half goals capped a satisfactory performance in the Pride’s first game for 7 weeks.

There were, understandably, signs of ring-rustiness early on but The Pride gradually started to warm to the task on a bitterly cold afternoon at Stapenhill.

With ten minutes played, Eliot Sayavong won a challenge and played a short pass to Sophie Ayton who found Tash Allderidge - her threaded through ball was taken in her stride and slotted home by Beth Jones [0-1]

Steph Eadon’s cut back across goal was deflected onto the post and out for a corner, and she was only just wide with a shot at full stretch after a mazy run into the Stapenhill area. However, although Pride were enjoying the upper hand and playing some attractive football, they needed another goal to show for all their possession.

The breakthrough came on the half-hour, following a corner from the left taken by Tash Allderidge, which Daisy Bowen wasn’t quite able to control under pressure, but the ball spun behind her and into the path of Annie Laight and, with her first touch after coming on as a substitute, she steered the ball through the crowd and into the net [0-2].

Tash Allderidge added a third three minutes later, collecting a Stapenhill goal kick, taking a few strides forward and hitting a dipping shot over the 'keeper from 25 yards [0-3].

Steph Eadon went close again with a shot just outside the post but at half-time it remained 3-0 at the break.

A feature of the first half had been Pride’s work out of possession to restrict Stapenhill’s attempts to build attacks and this continued in the second half. Daisy Bowen added a fourth after 55 minutes, following in at the far post to convert Tash Allderidge’s cross-shot from wide [0-4]. Bowen almost another a minute later from the same position but this time steered her shot just the wrong side of the post.

The fifth goal, scored by Beth Jones, came from good build up play involving Sophie Ayton, Tash Allderidge and Otty Baker after 65 minutes [0-5]. Steph Eadon added a sixth ten minutes later with a shot from 25 yards that evaded the keeper [0-6]. The scoring was completed by Daisy Bowen with a minute left to play, firing home from just inside the area after Steph Eadon’s ball across the box was diverted to her by a defender's outstretched foot [0-7].

There were good contributions and performances all round and a number of contenders, but Emily Hayden got the accolade of Player of the Match for a composed performance featuring good distribution, positioning and decision making.

Our Development team were unfortunately eliminated in their quarter-final against Stanton Ilkeston on Sunday and yesterday’s draw revealed how close we were to an all-Pride tie; as the 1st team have been drawn away to Stanton Ilkeston in the semi-final, to be played on 16th February. In the other semi-final Staveley Miners Welfare will play Glossop North End

Our thanks to Stapenhill for a good game and post-match hospitality and to Sam for volunteering to run the line.