22th October Match Reports

Greater Manchester Team Match Report

YET ANOTHER SCORE DRAW

First off a thanks to Salford for allowing us to rearrange the fixture to a different pitch. The Reddish Home pitch nets have still not been repaired and after much last minute chaos and reorganising the venue was changed to Reddish Vale. I think this is the first time in very many years Reddish home pitch has been in Reddish.

Also thanks to everyone for working with the substitution rota, we had a lot of keen people on the pitch wanting to play some hockey so thanks very much for your efforts in making this work.

The first half saw some very exciting hockey, with the both the teams having possession. Salford attacks were very strong but this did not prevent young Hannah Williams putting in some excellent tackles. The defensive line worked well and the balls were fed out to the forwards who were able to pick them up and make serious in roads into the Salford defence. The substitutions worked really well and served to confuse the Salford team who where just finding their feet with the Reddish formation. This opened up chances for number of short corners but sadly none converted. The score at half time was 0-0 with Reddish having a good chance of winning.

The second half started with Salford really piling on the pressure, however the defence held and a break saw Reddish with the ball in the Salford D and Becky Schofield whacking it into the net. However this only served to drive Salford to increase the relentless pressure applied to the Reddish D. This resulted in a number of short corners being awarded, two of which were completely shut down by team captain Helen Elcock as she took the ball off the striker as the shot was made on goal. Yet more pressure in the D saw keeper Sarah Wantling save a ball with the unpadded part of her leg and then later go down and twist her shoulder. Frantic defensive work behind her saw the ball strike some ones foot in the mouth of the goal and a penalty was awarded. A brave and injured Sarah stood up to take the penalty and unfortunately it went in making it 1-1.

Salford attacked relentlessly for the remaining 20 minutes of the half with little opportunity for Reddish but the defence held with excellent support from the halves and defensive midfield player Charlie Simms. The score stayed at 1-1 another score draw for Reddish.