The Cestrians got back to winning ways in style as they beat Doncaster Rovers Belles in the FA Cup 2nd round qualifying.
Right from the first whistle Chester were straight on the attack; every part of their game seemed to be an immediate improvement from previous weeks.
After just 7 minutes Chester scored the first goal of the game, Laura Hockaday played a through ball for Nichole Havery and Havery neatly put the ball in the back of the goal.
Doncaster Belles made some good passes of their own and came close to equalising on a couple of occasions within the following 5 minutes. Stephanie Jones saved one and the other was a header that went wide.
They did manage to equalise on 17 minutes as Stephanie Jones was late coming off her goal line to make a clearance, the ball bounced off the back of Brogan Prudhoe and Belles’ Emily Burgen was the quickest to react and put the ball into the empty net.
Chester responded immediately through Nichole Havery and Elizabeth Thompson-Clarke. Havery put a solid pass through for Thompson-Clarke who was able to get a shot on target, but the Belles keeper was able to save it and put the ball out for a corner.
Tiegan Hutchinson delivered a great free kick from just outside the 18-yard box into the penalty area, Laura Hockaday managed to get a quick shot away, but again saved by the keeper. At this point Chester continued to apply further pressure on the Doncaster goal, making sure that their keeper, Kirsty Johnson, was kept busy.
39th minute Chester had another free kick; Hutchinson hit it hard and low, but the wall did their job. The ball rebounds out to Anna Collin who takes a shot from around 30 yards, the ball smashed off the cross bar but there was no-one there to finish it off.
Half time and the teams go in even with the score at 1-1.
53 minutes and Doncaster take the lead as Katie Ellison misjudge the bounce of the ball which let in Nadia Khan; she played a ball across the goal to Chloe Bethell who finished well.
Just 3 minutes later the Cestrians were awarded a penalty as Kirsty Smith handled the ball in the box. Nichole Havery stepped up and scored from the spot.
Chester took the lead again on 68 minutes as Anna Collin laid off a pass, under pressure, to Havery who completes her hat-trick. Just a couple of minutes later the Cestrians get their 4th goal as Kacie Elson, who replaced Thompson-Clarke on 59 minutes, scores from an overhead looping ‘shot’, which seemed to confuse the defence as they thought it was going over the cross bar.
Doncaster refused to give up as they kept trying to pull a goal back, but Jones made several saves for the Cestrians to maintain the 2-goal lead.
Full time and Chester-le-Street win 4-2 progressing to the next round of the Women’s FA Cup.
