St Ives Town Ladies overcame a couple of spots of bother to enjoy a successful first taste of Women’s FA Cup football yesterday.

The local lasses fluffed two penalties before skipper Sasha Smith made a late breakthough to earn a 1-0 victory at Roade in a first qualifying round tie.

Hannah Seymour-Shove earned both the spot-kicks for Saints. She blasted the first of them over the bar herself in the opening half before Georgia Stancombe’s second-half attempt was kept out by the legs of the home goalkeeper.

But Saints did eventually succeed in finding the net when Smith unleashed a fierce strike from the edge of the box with 10 minutes remaining after Connie Liddiard burst forward dangerously.

A smart save from goalkeeper Kira Maxwell then preserved the advantage and Saints’ reward is another away date in the next round. They travel to Norfolk side Wymondham on September 17.

Before then, Saints begin their Cambridgeshire Women’s Premiership campaign this Sunday when entertaining Newmarket Town at the St Ivo Outdoor Centre.