Carla repeats the trick

Cliftonville Ladies 7-0 Crusaders Strikers

Carla Devine hit another hat-trick as Cliftonville Ladies roared into the semi-finals of the Electric Ireland Women’s Irish Cup with a convincing North Belfast Derby victory over Crusaders Strikers at Solitude this evening.

The Reds’ first four goals came inside the opening 16 minutes, with the other three arriving in a quickfire spell at the start of the second-half as Devine – who toasted a treble against Mid Ulster Ladies last week – once again emerged with the matchball.

The deadlock was broken with just 25 seconds on the clock when Vicky Carleton rounded the goalkeeper to lay things on a plate for Devine and, within a minute-and-a-half, Carleton duly added her own name to the scoresheet.

It was 3-0 when Devine turned provider for Carleton on 14 minutes and, again, the next goal came around quickly with Devine joining her fellow goal-getter on completing a brace.

That’s how things stayed until five minutes into the second-half when Louise McDaniel curled in a beauty of a free-kick to extend Cliftonville’s advantage to five.

Devine completed her treble soon later and, again, Carleton was instrumental in the build-up, winning the ball back in just the right time and place for her team-mate to thunder home.

Good work from Abbie Magee then paved the way for Kirsty McGuinness to chip in number seven and, despite there being more than half an hour left on the clock, that proved the final strike of a very positive night for the Reds.