St Albans Hockey Club’s over 45s finally got their long-awaited National Cup semi-final played – and it was definitely worth the wait.

Despite not playing as a team for six months, the ladies quickly gelled and some fine attacking hockey took them to a 3-0 victory at Timperley.

The first goal came from a well-worked short corner after just four minutes, Ann-Marie Davenport calmly slotting the ball past the goalkeeper.

It quickly settled any nerves and they doubled their lead on 18 minutes with a free-flowing goal, Alyson Lord with the final clinical pass across to Jenny Birch to score.

The Mancunian hosts had chances of their own but Dawn Forshaw in goal had a particularly good game.

And the match was put to bed once and for all in the 64th minute when a pass across the circle from Sarah Embrey found Sian Ireland at the back post.

The final is on Sunday at Nottingham Hockey Centre.