BLACKBURN Rovers Centre of Excellence Girls will travel to Sunderland and Gateshead in the quarter finals of the FA Girls’ Youth Cup.

It is reward for the Rovers under 17s side’s dramatic penalty shoot-out victory at Aston Villa.

It was the second round in succession that last season’s runners up had progressed on spot kicks after they kept their cool to knock out North Yorkshire on penalties in the first round.

Rovers had to come from two goals down before getting the better of Villa on penalties.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Kamariah Scott after the visitors failed to clear a corner.

Rovers responded well to the setback as Aisha Yallop saw a shot saved before Ceri Holland hit the post.

But their inability to deal with set pieces struck again when a free kick into the box was headed into her own goal by Hannah Godfrey.

Rovers halved the deficit in the 56th minute with a neat finish from Yallop.

And Thea Mallett made it 2-2 in the final minute of the match when she picked out the top corner after a free kick from the returning Lorrie Doze was only partially cleared.

Holland, Mallett, Yallop and Natasha Fenton all scored in the shoot-out as Rovers reached the last eight of the competition.