ROSS Juniors Women gave hosts Wellington the boot in the Herefordshire County Cup on Sunday, securing a 3-0 win to go through to the next round.

The game saw a scrappy start on a wet and windy day, with both teams battling to gain the upper hand.

But Juniors took the lead after 20 minutes when chaos in the Wellington box saw the ball fall to Lily Irving, whose composed strike from 16 yards found the net to make it 1–0.

Wellington responded showing great physicality and putting pressure on the Ross defence, but some excellent defending, particularly from Jess Ruck, kept them at bay.

And breaking quickly on the counter from defending a corner, a superb interchange between Millie Malsom and Macy Walker ended with the latter finishing clinically to double the lead.

After half-time, Ross came out looking to control the game and continued to pose a threat going forward.

Lauren Creed showed great pace down the wing, and her pinpoint cross found Malsom, who forced a fine save from the Wellington keeper.

And on 75 minutes, Ross put the game beyond doubt, when a flowing move saw the ball fall to Hollie Mace, whose stunning strike flew into the top corner to seal the victory.

Ross (sponsored by 21 Wellbeing, HP Scaffolding, The Hope and Anchor and Pronto’s Pizza Kebab) created more chances late on – a clever through ball from Lucy Minikin finding Malsom, whose effort drifted just wide, while Darcy Baker’s shot was blocked and fell to Irving, who fired over from close range – but there was no further scoring.

Team coach Carl Roberts said: “This was a tough battle today for our young team, but they stood up to the challenge.

“On a wet and windy day, against a very strong and physical Wellington side, we had to dig deep. Sometimes you have to win ugly – and today we did just that.”

But Ross Ladies saw their cup game abandoned late on because of injuries to two of their Westfields opponents, with Juniors leading 10-2.

Two players from the home team banged heads colliding in the penalty box after 72 minutes, with an ambulance called to take one of the players to hospital, although she is now recovering at home.

In the very windy and wet conditions, stand-in goalie Summer Richardson-Wall had to be alert to make a fine save in the fourth minute.

This stung Ross into action as a marauding Cassie Tucker picked out Hannah Jenkins who used her pace and drilled the ball into the corner of the net.

Westfields had a chance to equalise on nine minutes from the penalty spot but blasted over the bar.

And from this point Ross (sponsored by Ross Health & Fitness, Kings Accountancy and Scaffolding 2000) turned on the style with five quality goals before half-time, and added another four in row second half before the game was unfortunately abandoned.

Hannah Jenkins scored four, Jess Brain and Danie Ward braces, and Summer Richardson-Wall and Kate Phillips one apiece.