Hockey match report 8th December - Morpeth Ladies’ First Team

For the second week running, Morpeth were up against a team where the expectation of their immediate league rivals would be a comfortable win. However, being the favourites doesn’t always sit well with the Morpeth side – preferring to be playing the role of underdogs. This potential of this fixture being a “banana skin” grew as the team travelled south through Yorkshire with the rain getting heavier and the temperature dropping closer and closer to freezing.

The match started in appalling conditions with heavy sleet soaking all the players as they warmed up – a task that was virtually impossible. This was going to be a battle against the elements as much as the opposition.

It was Worksop who started the brighter with their midfield releasing telling balls into the circle. Rose was called into action and the pressure started to tell on the defence with the umpire warning the away captain that further stick tackles would be punished with a yellow card.

Bizarrely, this threat seemed to settle Morpeth and they started to put some quality passages of play together. O’Brien in particular started to show her class with almost every attacking play stemming from her in central midfield. Frustratingly though the final clinical pass just kept missing the mark.

Dogged perseverance finally brought the breakthrough. A good combination between O’Brien and Wardle saw the ball fed across the heart of the circle by Moore. Dixon used all our goal-poaching skills to run and meet the ball before the advancing keeper and knock it neatly between the posts.

Undaunted, Worksop still felt there was an upset on the cards and continued to create half chances. The lanky back line of Pattinson, Hindmarch and Addy used all their height advantage to hold firm although Rose was forced to make a diving save with her stick just before half time.

The match resumed in the same miserable conditions as the first half with many players starting to suffer from the numbing cold. Both sides realised that the next goal would prove vital in determining the outcome of the game. Fortunately, for the visitors, it was they who struck home again with Dixon basically scoring in copycat function to the first ably assisted by a clever dummy from Grant. Indeed Dixon might have secured a hat-trick if Moore having worked her way round a number of defenders had released the ball earlier.

The last twenty minutes were largely played out with both teams simply trying to survive the conditions. Cockburn was forced to leave the pitch as she struggled to grip her stick with Henderson a little reluctant to remove her tracksuit again to replace her. The veteran Watkins finishing the match in her old position of centre midfield looking like she’d never left it.

So, not a pretty win but a win nonetheless and the hope that when the season resumes in January the weather conditions will not be nearly as inclement.

Team list: Janice Rose (GK), Karen Hindmarch, Lynn Watkins, Jenny Pattinson, Nikki Addy, Emma Cockburn (capt), Charlie O’Brien, Sarah Henderson, Katie Wardle, Fiona Grant, Lucy Dixon, Lindsey Moore

Man of the Match – Charlie O’Brien

Match sponsored by Kit and Sticks