2st October Match Reports

GMHA Team Match Report

GREATER MANCHESTER OPENING TOURNAMENT ROUND-UP

Despite narrowly missing out on a finals place, reddish can claim that they were unbeaten, both in matches and letting in goals. Three goalless draws and a one-nil win was not enough to take reddish into the final by 1 point, although all the performances are a positive reflection of the work done in training and the possibility for success in the Greater Manchester league.

The first match of the tournament was against a well organised Bolton (2), who asked many questions of the Reddish keeper. Fiercely driven hits kept Sarah on her toes and the Bolton were unlucky not to score. A wide open game saw many chances for reddish to break and shoot on goal and well organised passing meant that Bolton had to keep up with the Reddish game. A lack of shots on goal from Reddish and excellent goalkeeping meant the score stayed at nil-nil.

The second match meant a change in pitch for Reddish and their opponents Bury and Elton (2) (who were nicely coloured in fluorescent orange!) would be looking to score to try to get into the top two positions. A game which saw acres of space on the right hand side which was not exploited by Reddish and the game seemed to be channelled up the middle of the pitch. Bury and Elton seemed to be more comfortable playing the narrower game and a lack of scoring opportunities from both teams meant that each was to earn a valuable point and reddish were still unbeaten as the score remained nil-nil.

Saddleworth were the opponents for the third game and Reddish were straight out of the blocks with fast attacking hockey keeping their opponents in their defensive quarter. Assertive attacking play earned Reddish no less than four penalty corners. Yet, they can deem themselves unlucky not to have had a penalty flick as a Saddleworth defender stopped a certain goal with their chest. However, Reddish quickly put that behind them and Amy Gavin put Reddish ahead with a fiercely struck shot to the keepers’ right side from a penalty corner. Saddleworth tried to force an equaliser and almost did, was it not for some heroic on the line defending from Helen Elcock. A definite goal saved with some fantastic hand-eye co-ordination! Reddish managed to sustain the pressure and won the game 1-0.

A depleted Moss Park side were the next and final opponents in the tournament for Reddish. With only nine players Reddish looked to exploit the space and push for another win. Yet, this was not to be the case as a resilient Moss Park side continued to attack throughout the game despite their shortage of players. Shots from Lucy Cook and weaving runs from Natalie Sutherland kept the pressure on the Moss Park defence but it proved to strong and Reddish finished the game once again undefeated with a score of nil-nil.

A combination of strong individual skills, team work and the type of play enforced by Reddish in the tournament provides a promising outlook for the future season.

Report By Rachel Dunley.