Gillingham Women return to Southern Premier Division duty this weekend after securing a spot in the third round of the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday.

The Gills have been in cup action for the past three weeks and beat Dulwich Hamlet Women 2-1 to clinch a third round place and an away match against AFC Wimbledon Women in the next round.

A long-range effort from Georgia Griffin and a goal for Breon Grant was enough to clinch the win over Dulwich at Champion Hill on Sunday.

Manager Josh Oatham felt victory over their lower-league opponents was well deserved, having beaten Millwall Lionesses in the first round.

Speaking to the club’s media, Oatham said: “We played some of the best football we have all season in the first 30 minutes, we created some brilliant chances, combinations of play and were so good in possession. We got a really deserved goal and like every game we have it’s about going and getting that second goal.”

That second goal was scored by the home side. Erin Corrigan cut in from an angle to score for Dulwich and cancel out Griffin’s opener.

“At 1-0 you leave yourself open to a goal,” said the Gillingham manager. “They had one meaningful shot in the game for me, which is not a disservice to Dulwich, I thought they did very well.

“They had over 600 fans supporting them, they created a brilliant noise and the environment to play under was tough and what I was proud of was that the players stuck to their task brilliantly, playing some brilliant football.”

Breon’s goal early in the second half proved to be the difference, although Gillingham created plenty of chances to make the scoreline more convincing.

“We were well into double figures of chances,”Oatham said. “The nice thing for me is that we haven’t created that many chances in games previously but what the cup run has given us is renewed confidence that we can create these chances.

“For me, just taking one more of those and the game is then in the bag and we can be then comfortable in possession. 2-1 is always a tight scoreline but we restricted them to little chances and dominated the ball so a big well done to the team in terms of that performance.”

Sunday’s home league match against Bridgewater United kicks off at 2.30pm as Gillingham return to Chatham Town’s Bauvill Stadium. Adult entry is £5 while under-16 accompanied by an adult are admitted for free.