28th January Match Reports

Stockport Team Match Report

REDDISH GET REVENGE IN FLAGS REMATCH

With second place up for grabs in the senior flags match and with a fresh set of legs on them after not playing a match earlier in the day, Reddish were eager to avenge their league defeat the previous week and bring the silver wear to Reddish.

Well it was a dream start for reddish, Heaton looked far from their imposing self and gave away any early short corner that was shot just wide but acted as a wake up call that Reddish wanted revenge. Reddish took an early lead from another penalty corner and this time Lucy Cook, on her return from a back injury was on target with a fierce hit into the bottom right hand corner. With the score at one nil with less than ten minutes gone, Heaton continued to retreat back further into their own half thanks to strong attacks from the Reddish forwards. Some excellent link up play on the right wing between Charlie and Jenny W helped put more pressure on the Heaton defence and goal mouth scrambles were the order of the day.

Last weeks man of the match, Susan Elcock went one better this week and increased Reddish's lead to two goals, thanks to a well fought scramble, flicking the ball past the Heaton keeper. With a well deserved lead, Reddish continued to press forward and were rewarded with another goal just over a minute later after another Jenny run was finished in admirable form. Jenny coolly placed the ball in the back of the net and Reddish were in Dreamland. Reddish were three goals to the good after only managing to get one in the last league game and looked to be heading towards second place in the competition. However with such an impressive start, the Reddish defence lost concentration for a split second and conceded a penalty corner, which was converted thanks to a strong Jenny Foster hit that managed to find its way past the line defenders and took the score to 3-1 going into half time.

Things got a bit nervous towards the start of the second half as Reddish conceded a quick goal only two minutes into the half. A sideline pass was intercepted by the Heaton midfield and was strong run into the Reddish circle was halted by the defence only for the ball to run free and a first time shot from Jenny Foster, again, found its way past the Reddish keeper and made the score 3-2. The play became quite focused in the centre of the pitch for a majority of the second half as the reddish defence held firm and stopped any intimidating attacks from Heaton and the Reddish could only seem to get the ball just inside the Heaton circle.

It was towards the end of the second half that Reddish turned on the style and went on the attack. Strong crosses from the right were unlucky not to find the back of the net after going across the face of the goal. Runs down the wing from Sam P, crucial midfield tackles from Natalie Sutherland and excellent cross field passes switching the play split the Heaton defence and the added pressure on Heaton helped Reddish achieve a number of penalty corners. Cookie hit back and helped ease the pressure putting the lead back to two goals thanks to another well struck drive this time into the bottom right corner.

But less than five minutes later the pressure was back on Reddish as Jenny Foster scored her hat-trick goal from a penalty corner and made the score 4-3. This was just after winding Andrea, as she stopped a solid hit from the same player. Nice one, Andrea! Despite the close score, Reddish always looked destined to win and they were determined not to lose. Another strong team performance, high levels of concentration was the winning formula as they held out to win the match, achieve second place in the competition, silver medals and got revenge on Heaton.

Rachel Dunley