RUGBY Borough Women were denied a place in the semi-finals of the League Cup after they were beaten on penalties by Leamington Lions.
Borough appeared on course for a place in the last four through Sydnee Lowe’s first-half goal only for a late penalty to take the game to a shootout.
And Rugby missed two of their five penalties to lose 4-3 on spot kicks.
Borough captain Tammi Davies was forced off with an injury just 20 seconds into the contest after she was caught off the ball.
However, Rugby put that setback behind them to take the lead when Lowe finished from close range after Emily Davies’ saved shot fell into her path.
Leamington piled on the pressure in the second half only for Rugby to have the ball in the net again through Chloe Maxwell with the goal disallowed after the ball was deemed to have gone out of play.
And the visitors found their equaliser on 85 minutes when Beth Daly was penalised for a soft foul in the box with the resulting spot kick converted to send the game to a shootout.
Beth Fesel missed Rugby’s opening penalty before Chloe Skipworth, Dani Statham and Sam Smyth all scored only for goalscorer Lowe to miss Borough’s final penalty.
Rugby play their final game of the season away at Westfields Women on Sunday, April 10 with kick-off at 2pm at AllPay Park.
