BURNLEY FC Women continued their fine start to the season as they comfortably progressed to the next round of the Lancashire FA Women's Challenge Cup.

Matt Bee's Clarets were 9-0 winners over a game but over-matched Hindley Juniors side in the preliminary round tie at Padiham's Arbories ground on Sunday.

Evie Priestley scored a hat-trick as the four-league gap between the two sides showed on the day.

There is no seeding or grading of the teams that enter the county cup and so they all go into the hat together, leading to some tough tests for lower ranked sides.

Hindley have only competed for a couple of seasons and have worked their way through the Lancashire FA Women’s Leagues to the Premier Division which is at step seven of the women’s football pyramid.

Burnley on the other hand are in step three after back-to-back promotions and with home advantage were big favourites, ultimately living up to that tag and making their superiority tell.

In was not all plain sailing for the Clarets as the visitors showed they could play some smart football and in the early stages they were able to push the Clarets back.

Hindley even saw a couple of well-struck shots drift marginally off target to show they meant business.

But once the first goal went in it was one-way traffic.

The Clarets opened their account when young winger Sarah Agger found the back of the net on eight minutes with a brace from Kelly Halligan swiftly following.

Hindley keeper Laura Swindles would keep out several attempts in what was a top-notch display but the goals kept coming.

Kerry Hope, Levi Rathburn, Sarah Greenhalgh and Priestley all got in on the act with the latter completing her hat-trick two minutes from time.

There is more cup action for Bee's side this Sunday as they head up to Sunderland in the FA Women’s National League Cup.

The Black Cats are currently top of the FA Women’s National League North, three points ahead of the Clarets who sit in third place with a game in hand.

Sunderland’s start to the season has been the strongest in the league so the cup game will give the Clarets a good opportunity to assess the current league leaders.