Preston North End Women cruised into the FA Women’s Premier League Cup semi-final with a dominant performance over Nottingham Forest Ladies at Bamber Bridge.
A single goal from Gemma Watson was enough to see off Forest, who also missed a penalty late on in the game.
PNE started off the brighter of the two teams and created a chance within the opening two minutes, but Keeleigh Savage couldn’t direct her header towards goal at the near post.
Savage then played a major part in the only goal of the game in the 14th minute.
She whipped in a pin point cross to the front post and Watson arrived at the right time to tap in and make it 1-0 to PNE.
Watson nearly added a second eight minutes after her goal but Forest goalkeeper Vanessa Kinnerley acrobatically tipped her effort onto the bar and out for a corner.
From the resulting corner, Preston hit the bar and then a goal mouth scramble prevented a second goal going in.
Danielle Brown was more of a spectator in the first half, but was forced into making her first save of the game in the 40th minute from a powerful shot eighteen yards out.
Two minutes later and North End were on the counter attack with a flowing move that eventually finished with Alison Taberner playing a low cross into the box which was narrowly missed by Savage and Katie Anderton.
The second half started similar to the first half, with PNE dominating much of the possession and creating plenty of chances, with the most notable one falling to Sophie Jones as her shot shaved the outside of the post.
Towards the end of the game Forest starting throwing bodies forward and they were awarded a penalty in the 79th minute when goalscorer Watson brought down Annabel McKechnie.
Isabel Sullivan stepped up to take the spot kick, but blazed the ball over the goal and PNE were let off the hook.
After that miss, Preston were able to see the game out to claim their third win in a row, as well as sealing their third clean sheet in a row.
The result means that PNE will now take on Sheffield FC in the semi-final after they beat Bradford City with two injury time goals and the game will be played on the 30th March at Bamber Bridge.
PNE: Brown, Ball, Carroll, Bayley, Taberner, Walker, Forster (Charlesworth 85), Anderton, Watson, Savage (Forshaw 62), Jones (Hutton 76)