A DOUBLE Sutton Coldfield strike midway through the second half shattered Trojans’ prospects of a second consecutive Investec Women’s Western Conference victory at Stoneham lane.

Buoyed by their 1-0 success at Gloucester City the previous week, Trojans acquitted themselves well against the high-riding Midlands outfit, with goalkeeper Claire Gover making some fine saves, writes Mike Vimpany.

Trojans lost Zoe Gittens with a groin strain, but made a bright start to the second period, only to be undone by an Emma McCabe brace.

Jenny Peebles twice went close for Trojans, but then McCabe burst through to beat Gover on a one-on-one and, with the defence still in disarray, struck again to tie up the points.

Trojans produced a late rally in a frantic bid to salvage a point, but all they could manage was a trademark penalty corner conversion by Sally Gibson.

Elsewhere, Romsey put their first Hampshire/Surrey Regional Division 2 points of the season on the board when they won 5-3 at Yateley.

But they had to repel a second half fightback from their hosts before clinching their victory.

“It was a performance that combined plenty of attacking endeavour with some sloppy discipline and our inability to defend penalty corners that resulted in the scoreline being closer than it should have been,” reflected skipper Dave Edwards.

Romsey dominated the first half and were well worth their 3-1 advantage at the break.

But they were unable to convert an early series of four penalty corners as the goalkeeper saved drag-flicks from Joe Welch and a deflection from David Edwards on separate occasions.

Eventually, Welch scored from his third drag-flick, but Romsey’s lead didn’t last long as Yateley’s more refined set-piece drills paid off.

By half-time Neil Strong, following a pacey right-wing burst by Lewis Birch, and Ben Butcher had given Romsey a 3-1 lead.

When Chris Mason saw a short corner come back off the post, Romsey probably feared the worst.

Predictably, with Romsey two men down to yellow card offences, Yateley tucked away two penalty corners to level.

Restored to a full compliment, Romsey regrouped and scored twice through Ben Mullan to run out 5-3 winners.

Also, goals from Bobs Cooper (2) and Katrina Penn-Newman gave Romsey U18 girls a 3-1 home win over Haslemere in the quarter finals of the Hampshire Cup. They now face Trojans in the last four.