Daisy Hill cruised into the semi-finals of the Atherton Charity Cup with a 3-1 win against Golborne Sports at the Plumb Factory Stadium on Monday night.

On a blustery evening, Jamie Ramwell gave Daisy a half-time lead, and Jake O’Brien doubled the advantage with a penalty two minutes into the second half.

Although Golborne hit back with a well-taken goal from striker Jordan Coates three minutes later, Dean Singleton restored the two-goal advantage just before the hour.

And Daisy saw the game out safely, with all five substitutes getting valuable game time.

With last Saturday’s league game at home to Ashton Athletic falling foul of the weather, Daisy midfielder Jack Iley said afterwards the squad had been keen to get the cup tie played, and take the chance to maintain their recent good form.

“Over the last couple of weeks, the way the weather has been, I don’t think many teams will have had a football out at all,” said Iley.

“So we have tried to do our own thing together as a squad, and keep the momentum going.

“It’s important to keep that going, and keep winning matches.

“It was a scrappy game, the weather wasn’t great and the pitch wasn’t fantastic either, but a win is a win and it’s on to the next round.

“I think we missed our share of chances, but they did too, so it was probably a fair scoreline in the end.

“We had the wind behind us in the first half, but balls were running through, and it may even have helped them a bit more than us.

“But in the second half we managed the game well, we came out and did what we needed to do.

“I think it shows the character of this team. We went 2-0 up then they got a goal back straight away, and a lot of teams at this level would crumble under that pressure, going from 2-0 to 2-1 in a cup game with over half an hour to go.

“But when it went to 3-1 it settled us down a bit, we started to relax on the ball, and played our way through to the end.”

Daisy suffered an early blow when leading scorer Ryan Talbot limped off in the seventh minute after twisting his knee, but the enforced change did not affect his team-mates, who dominated the early possession.

Ramwell, in particular, made a lively start, and after setting up Ben Howarth for a shot that was blocked by Golborne keeper Luke Riley, Ramwell himself just failed to connect with a Howarth cross fired across the face of goal.

But at the midway point in the half, Ramwell was rewarded for his early endeavours when his cross into the box took a deflection off a Golborne defender and drifted over the head of Riley into the net.

Two minutes into the second half Daisy doubled their lead from the penalty spot, after Sam Twist was tripped inside the box.

Skipper O’Brien kept up his 100-per-cent record from the spot this season, with a coolly-taken kick that sent the keeper the wrong way.

But Golborne hit back within three minutes, when a neat through ball played Jordan Coates through on goal, and as Daisy keeper Morgan Newns raced out to challenge, the Golborne striker lofted the ball over his head from 20 yards.

Five minuets later Daisy had another scare when Golborne found the back of the net again, but the goal was ruled out by the flag of the assistant referee.

However, as the game approached the hour mark, Daisy restored their two-goal advantage when a corner was curled deep into the penalty area, and centre-half Singleton timed his run perfectly to meet the ball on the volley and smash home from six yards.

From then on Daisy were in control, and could have added to their tally late on, when Twist and Ramwell were both denied by good saves from Golborne keeper Riley.

Daisy are back in action in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday when they travel to West Yorkshire to face Route One Rovers (3pm).