15th October Match Reports

Greater Manchester Team Match Report

REDDISH UNABLE TO HALT STRONG OPPOSITION  

After an early morning triumph in the Stockport league Reddish were looking to continue their winning ways against an experienced Bury and Elton side. Both teams started positively, both attacking each other’s defence and causing both lots of problems. However, Reddish looked the stronger attacking team and were able to force Bury to concede a penalty corner early in the first half. The corner was sweetly converted by an on form Becky Schofield (who scored two goals earlier that morning!) and Reddish had an early lead.

Bury’s experienced players used their hitting ability to attack the Reddish circle and Sarah had to be alert to stop a number of balls from crossing the line. Fantastic saves from all angles and a number of injury stoppages (thanks to Dunners’ feet!) allowed the Reddish defence to regroup and stop Bury from equalising and kept. Concentration was high from the Reddish defence as they had to defend several penalty corners in a row. They finally got the ball out of the 25 and a quick counterattack surprised the Bury defence, with Amber Bryden finding lots of space down the right hand side of the pitch and producing crosses which caused lots of panic in the Bury circle. Yet the Bury and Elton defence held firm and Reddish went into half time ahead with a narrow lead of one goal to nil.

The second half was a totally different story and the first half dominance from Reddish was quickly forgotten about as Bury and Elton used their hockey knowledge and turned on the style. Reddish continued to attack and looked to increase their lead but this left gaps in defence and a lack of concentration lead to the equaliser from Zoe Newcombe.

Bury quickly increased their lead to two and despite goal line clearances (well watched Higgs!) and heroic goal keeping efforts, Reddish were feeling the pressure and could not seem to get the ball out of defence. A goal fest was soon to follow from Bury with Rachel Mason, Lisa Nuttall, Karen Banks and Angela Martin all adding their names to the score sheet. The space which was readily available for Reddish to attack in the first half was now covered by lots of Bury defenders and they could not add to their first half goal.

It was looking as though the earlier morning game had taken effect on the young Reddish side, yet they continued to come forward down the right hand side and scoring opportunities from Jenny Worth and Natalie Sutherland gave the Bury defence plenty to think about during the closing minutes of the match. Still Reddish could not add to their goal and Bury and Elton edged out as convincing 5-1 winners in a heated match with two completely different halves.

Rachel Dunley