SWINDON Spitfires Under 17s reached the semi-final of the Oxford Girls League Cup with a 4-2 win at Kennington Athletic.

Spitfires opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Sarah Uzzell outpaced the defence and rolled the ball past the keeper into the far corner.

The lead lasted just two minutes as Kennington equalised, but back came the visitors and Uzzell restored their lead in the 10th minute through Hayley Shipp .

Lisa Matthews scored directly from a corner in the 28th minute to give Spitfires a two-goal lead going into the break.

After Shipp put a free-kick just wide four minutes into the second half, Kennington came back strongly and Kench did well to tip a long-range effort onto the bar and away to safety in the 50th minute.

Kennington were given a way back into the game in the 58th minute when Matthews was adjudged to have brought down a Kennington player in the box, but the resultant penalty cleared the bar.

Uzzell shot just wide from Anna Higgins’s pass on 62 minutes, but again Kench was on hand to save Spitfires three minutes later.

Uzzell had another shot tipped over and Matthews saw her looping shot go just wide before the home keeper kept out Cheyenne Clark’s effort.

Spitfires’ fourth goal came two minutes from time when Uzzell met Matthews’s cross. There was time for Kennington to double their tally with a header at the far post from a corner. But it was too little, too late.

Spitfires’ under 15s crashed to a surprise 7-1 defeat in their quarter-final at Didcot Casuals, with Poppy Cottrill netting the consolation. The under 14s did better and reached the semi-finals with an 8-1 win at Carterton Town thanks to goals from Helena Butcher (2), Nat Goodright (2), Katie Donovan (2), Lucy Goodright and Chantelle Scott. Meanwhile, in the Wiltshire Girls League, Spitfires’ under 13s advanced to the final after a 6-0 win against Sarum Youth, with goals from Georgia Brown (2), Sophie Roberts, Lucy Scrannage, Hollie Timbrell, and Gipsy Viveash.

Spitfires will face Melksham Town in May’s final.