Needham Market have been brought back down to earth with a bump as they went down to a 6-1 defeat away at St Albans.
They had won their last three games with hopes high but that was extinguished early thanks to early goals from Elsbeth Cunningham and Chloe Timms before Scarlett Robb added a third before half time.
It got worse straight after the break with Terri Harvey chipping a fourth before Rebecca Stephenson rifled in a brilliant response but instead of a comeback the home side added a couple of late strikes thanks to Francesca Grazioli and Kiera Ward.
It was a fairly even start to the game, but the home side took an early lead thanks to Cunningham knocking a rebound in after Timms long range effort came back off the bar.
And they doubled that lead only moments later when Timms unleashed another long-range strike but this time the bar aidedthe ball in.
Then the game settled down although Danni Clarke was called into action midway through the half.
Needham had few chances but the best of them came late on through first Stephenson, whose fine shot was pushed out for a corner.
After the team forced a couple of further corners, Sheryce Slater had the best chance beating the offside trap, but her attempt was blocked at close range.
St Albans hit a long clearance, and it landed to Robb who tucked it away to give the home side a commanding lead at the break.
The second half started poorly too as they added a fourth thanks to Harvey after she was played in.
In a glimmer of hope, Stephenson reduced the arrears with a belter from 35 yards into the top right corner of the net.
But it ended up only being a wonderful consolation as St Albans added a further two goals in stoppage time thanks to Grazioli scoring another rebound off the bar before Ward concluded the scoring.
In better news the development team progressed to the semi-final of the Suffolk League Cup with a massive 10-0 victory over Championship Leiston St Margrets.
The home side found themselves 6-0 up at half time thanks to a hattrick from Poppy Nunn, a brace from Hannah Cobbold and one for Immy Porch.
They then went on to add another four in the second half as Cobbold completed her hattrick, with further goals from Lucy Chennery, Poppy Osborn and Chloe Taylor.
Needham handed a club debut to Brooke Robinson in goal and she played a half while usual keeper Zoe Adams played the other with both keeping a clean sheet on a very successful day for the development team.
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