United?s Ladies moved into the semi-final of this season?s Thames Valley League Plate competition with a victory over Stony Stratford but were made to work hard by the Milton Keynes team.

The match started slowly with little action of note until the midpoint of the half when Nicola Hunt wriggled her way through and her shot was pushed wide.

Special mention must be made of Laura Warmbier who put in a tremendous performance, probably her best in an Aylesbury shirt as well as the excellent Gemma Butterfield who had a couple of half chances before United broke the deadlock on thirty seven minutes.

Kerry Naisbitt took a corner which the defence watched float across the area and goal poacher Hannah Franklin reacted quickest to tap the ball home.

Gemma Butterfield had a fierce drive fly wide as United upped the tempo and doubled their lead. Another corner fell to the predatory Franklin in the box who made no mistake from close range.

The game could have been out of Stony?s reach a minute later as a third corner was met by Laura Gardner but the youngster?s header came crashing back off the crossbar.

United then went to sleep as the home side missed an open goal in the opening minutes of the second period. This spurred the Division Two side on and it was only a matter of time before sloppy defending allowed them to reduce the arrears.

There followed a spell of about fifteen minutes in which the Ducks created a number of chances with Gardner and Hannah Franklin having a couple of efforts a piece while Hunt flashed a shot just over the cross bar.

Then with twelve minutes remaining calamity, as Stony broke, United failed to clear their lines and the scores were level, against the run of play maybe but the side only had themselves to blame.

Briefly Aylesbury were reminded of the previous season?s exit at the same stage when leading until late on at Wantage, but thankfully the equaliser stirred the Ducks from their slumber and the lead was restored two minutes later.

The lively Lucy Ilic pumped a hopeful high ball into the area, the keeper hesitated and Kerry Naisbitt was on hand to fire home. Three minutes later and the Ducks finally put the game beyond their hosts. Naisbitt?s free kick was only parried and Nicola Hunt made no mistake from two yards out.

An important win for the Aylesbury Ladies who will now look to avenge their semi-final defeat of two seasons ago with a home tie against Chinnor.