Canterbury Ladies suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat in the semi-final of the Maxinutrition Hockey 5s Championships to miss out on a place in the Wembley final.

The city club played out a thrilling draw with table-topping Bowdon Hightown in the last four at Arena Sport Kettering on Saturday evening but were edged out in a dramatic finale.

Canterbury stormed into an early 2-0 lead through Nikki Kidd and Anna Baker only for Hightown to battle back to lead 3-2 at half-time with TeamGB stars Sally Walton, former Canterbury skipper Susannah Townsend and Tina Cullen all scoring.

Cullen bagged a second goal to put Bowdon 4-2 ahead but the city club hit back in dramatic fashion with goals from Mel Clewlow and Grace Balsdon to make it 4-4.

Sally Walton edged Bowdon ahead with a penalty stroke with three minutes remaining, but Kidd scored her second with 60 seconds left to force the tie into penalties, where the Manchester side prevailed 2-1, with the city club hitting the frame of the goal on three occasions.

Bowdon will face perennial big-guns Reading in the final at Wembley Arena on February 2 after the Berkshire side saw-off Slough 4-3 in the last four thanks to an Alex Danson winner in the closing seconds.