St Albans Ladies continued their good form with a 4-1 home victory over Houghton Athletic Ladies in the quarter-final of the Beds & Herts Women's League Cup.

The Lady Saints found the net twice in each half, with Kerry Twigg and Sophie Hull adding to an Ellie Lovelock brace, while Rachel Spendelow added what would turn out to be a consolation goal for the visitors.

After a positive start in which Nicola Dark and Sophie Lawrence gave goalkeeper Amber Hedges some early work to do, the deadlock was broken in the 20th minute.

Molly Slade helped the ball into the path of Lovelock who found the back of the net with a well-struck shot from 10 yards out.

Nine minutes later, the lead was doubled through Twigg, whose superbly struck first-time effort from range left Hedges with no chance in the Houghton net.

Athletic did manage to strike back with a cracker of their own when Spendelow saw Lauren Croucher slightly off her line.

The keeper got her hands to the long-range effort, but she could not stop the ball from going into the back of the net, halving the deficit before the break.

After the interval, the Saints stepped up the pressure and had restored their two-goal lead on 56 minutes.

Ellen Salter this time set up Hull and she was able to score her first goal for the club with a neat finish inside the penalty area.

Just after the hour mark, the Lady Saints added a fourth to kill the game off when Lovelock latched onto a Slade corner to sweep the ball home for her second goal of the match.

St Albans Ladies will now play AFC Kempston Town & Bedford College Ladies in the semi-final at home on Sunday, February 24.